OREANDA-NEWS. June 23, 2010. As part of regular inter-foreign ministry dialogue, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov paid a working visit to the Republic of Belarus from June 21-22.

On the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, Lavrov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus Sergei Martynov laid wreaths at the Victory Monument in Minsk. The head of the Russian foreign affairs agency was received by President Alexander Lukashenko of the Republic of Belarus.

Current topical issues of Russia-Belarus foreign policy interaction were discussed in the talks. The parties spoke for further deepening coordination on the basis of the Union State’s Coordinated Action Program in the Area of Foreign Policy for 2010-2011. Particular attention was paid to regional and international security and to advancing in this context the Russian initiative for concluding a European Security Treaty and to the issues of countering new challenges and threats.

The importance was stressed of reinvigorating joint efforts to establish a Customs Union and a Single Economic Space of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, as well as to ensure the effective operation of other integration structures in the CIS.

At the conclusion of the talks, agreement was reached to hold the next joint meeting of the collegiums of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia and Belarus in the second half of this year.