LATEST NEWS AND STATEMENTS

• Russia – Meeting of the Franco-Russian Cooperation Council for Security Issues (31.10.12)

  Created in 2002 on the initiative of the French and Russian heads of state, this forum brings together once a year the foreign and defense ministers of France and the Russian Federation. It is a forum for cooperation and dialogue between our two countries, Russia being a top-level partner of France.

• Russia – France’s support for the work of NGOs and human rights defenders (22.10.12)

  Three Russian human rights defenders and NGO representatives, Tanya Lokshina, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Moscow office, Igor Kalyapin, Chairman of the Inter-Regional Committee against Torture, and Sergey Babinets, member of the Joint Mobile Group, were received at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 17 and 19 by the human rights ambassador and the director responsible for continental Europe.

• Freedom of expression – Visit to Moscow by the Human Rights Ambassador (03.09.12)

  He will meet his Foreign Ministry counterpart and recall that France supports the principles of freedom of expression and opinion throughout the world.

• Russia – WTO (22.08.12)

  We welcome this accession which sanctions the entry of a major partner into this organization. We see it as a reflection of Russia’s increasing willingness to be included in an international standards system.

• Russia – WTO (18.07.12)

  France welcomes the ratification of the protocol of accession to the World Trade Organization by the two chambers of the Russian Parliament.