IRANIAN PRESIDENT TO VISIT RUSSIA, PROMOTE PARTNERSHIP








MOSCOW, MARCH 7, RIA NOVOSTI - An upcoming visit of Iran's President Sayed Muhammad Khatami to Russia will promote mutually beneficial bilateral partnership, said Georgi Mamedov and Ali Akhani, the two countries' Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, after Mr. Akhani arrived in Moscow to prepare the presidential visit.


	The conferees approved the present scope of the Russo-Iranian political dialogue and contacts, especially for regional security and international stability. Export control and military-technological partnership were prominent on their agenda. The two countries will step up contacts in those fields, say Russia's Foreign Ministry PR.


	The Russian negotiator put forward to his counterpart President Vladimir Putin's latest initiatives to resume practical nuclear disarmament and buttress international arrangements for mass destruction arsenal and vehicle nonproliferation with the 1972 ABM treaty surviving. Special emphasis was made on a Russian proposal to discuss prospects for open regional medium-range ABM networks proceeding from related Russian-US and multilateral agreements.