Lavrov, Miliband voice hope for better Russia-Britain ties

Moscow, Nov 2 : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavorv and his British counterpart David Miliband today expressed the hope that their talks here will help improve ties between the two countries marred by a series of disputes recently.

Miliband is Britain's first top diplomat to visit Russia in five years.

"We hope our political contacts today and yesterday will create conditions for settling current disputes," Lavrov said at the start of talks with Foreign Secretary Miliband.

Miliband said he hopes their talks will help add "depth and drive" to Russian-British ties.

British-Russian relations have been consistently frosty since the diplomatic fallout following the death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London three years ago.

Russia refused to extradite a key suspect and businessman Andrei Lugovoi in the murder, leading to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

Russian authorities' pressure on the British Council and Britain's criticism over Russia's conflict with Georgia in August 2008 also contributed to the worsening of relations between Moscow and London.

--UNI

(c) 2009 Published with permission from United News of India.
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