Russian Foreign Minister Visits Tripoli Panafrican News Agency (Dakar) May 7, 2001 Posted to the web May 7, 2001 Tripoli, Libya The secretary of the Libyan people's committee for external relations and international co-operation, Abdul Rahmane Chalgham, and the Russian minister of foreign affairs, Igor Ivanov, held discussions on how to consolidate relations between the two countries Sunday evening in Tripoli. Ivanov, on a two-day working visit, is the first senior Russian official to visit Tripoli in 15 years. He is expected to call on the leader of the Libyan revolution, Col. Moammar Kadhafi on Monday. The two men, official sources said, would touch on the issue of a possible warming up of technical and military co-operation between Tripoli and Moscow, international and regional problems of mutual interest, the Lockerbie affair and the crisis in the Middle East. Moscow, which was Libya's main military ally in the 1970s and 1980s, asserted on several occasions its willingness to resume its military co-operation with Tripoli. Co-operation between the two countries is now based on the energy sector. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier in the year invited Col. Kadhafi to pay him a visit in Moscow. This invitation is expected to be delivered formally on Monday to the Libyan leader by the visiting minister, informed sources said. In July 2000 Putin accepted an invitation to visit Libya. On his arrival at Maatigua airport, a former US base six km east of Tripoli, Ivanov expressed satisfaction over the development of bilateral relations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Copyright � 2001 Panafrican News Agency. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
