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Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov Meets
with IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
Daily News Bulletin
June 28, 2004

On June 28, Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov met with the visiting Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei.

During the talk, the sides touched on various aspects of cooperation by Russia with the IAEA. They noted the high level of collaboration in various fields, and underscored the important role of the Agency in strengthening the regime for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, in developing international cooperation in the peaceful utilization of atomic energy and in ensuring the proper level of nuclear and radiation safety. The enhancement of the Agency's system of safeguards is assuming a great significance in the conditions of new challenges and threats, it was pointed out.

Special attention was devoted to regional problems of nuclear nonproliferation and to their settlement.

In respect of the Iranian "nuclear dossier" the sides emphasized the necessity of consistently developing interaction between the IAEA and Iran with the objective of removing the outstanding issues as regards its nuclear activity.

The Russian side re-emphasized that the solution of the nuclear problem on the Korean Peninsula remains one of the top-priority tasks. Furthermore, we see no alternative to continuing the six-party talks to settle the North Korean nuclear problem, the third round of which ended in Beijing on June 25.

Separately the sides discussed the ideas of strengthening the regime for the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, as elaborated at the recent G8 summit at Sea Island, with respect to the activities of the Agency.

The Russian side reaffirmed its invariable support for the activities of the IAEA.