10 March 2004 18:25
Russian senator, Israeli diplomat see eye to eye on terrorism, discrimination
Moscow, 10 March: At a meeting in Moscow the chairman of the Federation Council's international affairs
committee, Mikhail Margelov, and the deputy head [deputy director-general for Euro Asia] of the Israeli Foreign
Ministry, Mark Sofer, have discussed the situation in the Middle East and bilateral relations.
"Russia is important to us as a guarantor of stability in the Middle East," the Israeli diplomat said.
"Today our countries face one and the same problems, the main one being the threat of international terrorism. At
the same time, there are no disputes of any kind between us that might complicate relations."
"There is weighty potential for further development of cooperation between Russia and Israel. Amongst other
things, this is based on an objective and conscious appreciation of just how complex the situation in the Middle East
is, an awareness which has formed in Russian society, in its political consciousness, over recent years," Margelov
said.
He noted that the two countries had common approaches to a number of international problems extending beyond the
Middle East region. Thus, both Moscow and Tel Aviv are worried by increasing manifestations of nationalism,
anti-Semitism and Russophobia in certain countries of Eastern Europe and the Baltic region which are preparing to join
the EU.
"Such excesses should not have to be tackled from Brussels," the head of the committee [Margelov] said.
"In order to honour democratic principles, which the authorities in the new EU member states claim to champion,
they need only apply their own national legislation - objectively and in full."
[RIA news agency] |
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