Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will on Saturday attend an informal OSCE foreign ministerial meeting in Kazakhstan.
The informal summit will discuss global security, the situations in Kyrgyzstan after violent ethnic clashes and in Afghanistan, as well as Russia's European security treaty initiative.
Violent clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan broke out in the city of Osh on June 11 and then spread to the neighboring Jalalabad region. Unofficial estimates put the death toll at about 2,000 people, while half a million may have been made homeless by the violent pogroms, which saw thousands of homes burned.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed drawing up a new pan-European security pact in June 2008, and Russia published a draft of the treaty on November 29, 2009, sending copies to heads of state and international organizations, including NATO. But the world has been reluctant to support Russia's initiative.
The informal OSCE summit, to be held at a resort 35 km from Almaty, will be attended by foreign ministers and high-ranking officials from the 56 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, 12 partner states and a number of international organizations.
Kazakhstan is the OSCE's chairman in 2010. It strives to hold a formal summit of the OSCE heads of state this year in its capital Astana. Russia supports Kazakhstan's initiative, which should be backed by all member states to take effect.
ALMATY, July 17 (RIA Novosti)
