Manama: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov hailed on Thursday the strategic dialogue between Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) during a meeting held in Moscow with GCC foreign ministers.
He hoped that the meeting would boost cooperation in the political, economic, humanitarian and cultural spheres, Kuwait news Agency (Kuna) reported.
The GCC, established in 1981, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al said the GCC states were exerting great efforts to develop relations with Russia in various areas.
The GCC and Russia share similar views in respecting nations' sovereignty, committing to the international law and not interfering in internal affairs, he said.
Al Jubeir praised Russia's support to the Palestinian case, stressing the importance of encountering terrorism and radicalism, the Kuwaiti official news agency reported.
He emphasised the importance of discussing regional developments, especially in Syria and Iraq, besides the Iranian interference in the region's affairs, to safeguard the region's stability.
In his remarks at a joint Press conference, Lavrov was quoted by the Tass news agency as saying that the GCC countries and Russia were fully committed to the decisions by the International Syria Support Group.
"We reaffirmed our full commitment to the decisions that were made regarding the Syrian settlement within the framework of the ISSG and the UN Security Council," Lavrov said. "Under the Security Council auspices we supported the continuing process of the search for a settlement in Yemen, Libya and a number of other countries of the Middle East and northern Africa and discussed the situation in Iraq."
Earlier, Lavrov said the Russia-GCC dialogue has proved its efficiency.
"Some five years ago our meetings were kick-started in Abu-Dhabi, and today we are holding the fourth meeting," Lavrov said at the opening of the meeting of the strategic dialogue. "Over the past years, the dialogue has proved its efficiency on global and regional issues. We hope that this meeting will give impetus to our relations. Since holding the previous round in 2014 a whole number of meetings have been held at the highest level between Russia and the states represented here, there were numerous phone conversations. During these contacts our work was highly assessed. We expect that we will justify the confidence of our leaders," he said, Tass reported.
Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, and GCC Secretary General Abdul Lateef Al Zayani also took part in the meeting.
The joint ministerial meeting for the strategic dialogue between the GCC and Russia, is the fourth, but it is being hosted for the first in the Russian capital.
Previous meetings were held in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Kuwait.
