Russia urges to have special int’l meeting on Syria. BEIJING, June 6 (Itar-Tass) —— Russia urges to have a special international meeting on the situation in Syria to talk the conflicting parties into stopping violence and getting down to the negotiating table, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said here on Wednesday. “We find it essentially important to fulfil Kofi Annan’s peace plan and the UN Security Council resolution, which approved this plan, and we find it necessary to convene a meeting of the countries, which influence really various opposition groups,” the Russian foreign minister said. “There are no many of them,” Lavrov noted, adding that the Russian initiative concerns the permanent members of the UN Security Council, leading regional countries, particularly Turkey and Iran, as well as the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. “The European Union can make its contribution,” the minister added. Helsinki Accords. The Helsinki Accords, Helsinki Final Act, or Helsinki Declaration was the final act of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Finlandia Hall of Helsinki, Finland, during July and August 1, 1975.
Thirty-five states, including the USA, Canada, and most European states except Albania, signed the declaration in an attempt to improve relations between the Communist bloc and the West. The Helsinki Accords, however, were not binding as they did not have treaty status.[1] Articles[edit] The Accords' "Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States" (also known as "The Decalogue") enumerated the following 10 points: Ford Administration[edit] When U.S. According to Ford, "The Helsinki documents involve political and moral commitments aimed at lessening tension and opening further the lines of communication between peoples of East and West. ... Soon after the return from Helsinki, A. Reception and impact[edit] Signatory states[edit] Absent[edit] Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe (from the Atlantic to the Urals) and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry.
The treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. History[edit] Background[edit] In 1972, US president Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev reached a compromise agreement to hold separate political and military negotiations.[1] The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) would deal with political issues, and Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR) with military issues. The CSCE resulted in 1975 in 35 nations signing the concluding document: the Helsinki Final Act. CFE negotiations[edit] Status[edit] Signed[edit] Ratification[edit] Amendment[edit] Syria crisis tops EU-Russia summit agenda.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance on Syria will be in the spotlight today (4 June) at his first summit with the EU since he returned to the Kremlin last month. European diplomats called the meeting at a lavish estate on the outskirts of Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg a chance to get reacquainted with the Russian leader, in power for 12 years and now formally in charge of foreign policy again.
But the crisis in Syria, where Moscow has blunted Western efforts to condemn President Bashar al-Assad and push him from power, may overshadow talks on trade and other issues at the twice-yearly summit. Both Russia and Europe still have hope in Kofi Annan's UN-backed peace plan to end 15 months of bloodshed that Western nations blame on Assad. But EU nations wish Russia would press the Syrian leader to withdraw weaponry and halt attacks as demanded by the plan, and want him to step aside to make way for a political transition.
Same vision? The criticism over market access cuts both ways.