Russia and the USA "are cooperating actively in the area of the fight against terrorism".
Aleksandr Yakovenko, the official Russian Foreign Ministry representative, said this to ITAR-TASS today in connection with the coming 28 October meeting of the Russian-American working group on the fight against terrorism.
In his words, "right now it is too early to anticipate specific decisions of this meeting. A vast and rich agenda needs to be worked through."
In particular, Yakovenko noted, "it is planned to discuss the terrorist aspect of the problem of the nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, regional aspects of the terrorist threat, countering the financing of terrorism and the illegal circulation of drugs".
Particular attention will be paid to "cooperation in counterterrorism between Russia and the USA, including through respective special services and also within the framework of the UN", the diplomat stressed.
Richard Armitage, US first undersecretary of state, is co-chairman of the group on the American side, and Sergey Kislyak, deputy head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, is co-chairman on the Russian side. Anatoliy Safronov, special representative of the Russian president on issues of international cooperation in the fight against terrorism and transnational organized crime, and Cofer Black, US State Department coordinator on issues connected with the fight against terrorism, will also be taking part in the meeting.
The Russian-American working group on the fight against terrorism is "a unique developing mechanism for the coordination of Russian and US efforts in which representatives of all departments involved in the fight against terrorism are taking part", Yakovenko said.
"A confidential dialogue is under way within the framework of the group to work out threat assessments and to eliminate terrorist infrastructures in various regions of the world and to cooperate within the framework of the counterterrorism committee in the UN Security Council."

Source: ITAR-TASS news agency, Moscow
BBC Monitoring