Sino-Russian talks to focus on Iran

ISN SECURITY WATCH (Tuesday, 16 May 2006: 11.01 CET) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart Li Zhaoxing are holding discussions in Beijing on Tuesday with the Iranian nuclear crisis likely to be high on the agenda, Reuters reports.

"We are very happy today to welcome our old friend," Zhaoxing told Lavrov as the discussions started.

Lavrov said that the session would prepare the ground for a meeting between the countries' heads of state at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in mid-June. The SCO grouping of central Asian countries, Russia, and China is a plenum for talks on security issues and economic cooperation.

Russia and China urged the international community to enter negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program at a meeting of SCO foreign ministers on Monday.

Both countries have sought to deflect efforts by the US and EU countries to move towards the imposition of international sanctions on Iran over its controversial nuclear program.

China has substantial energy interests in the Islamic republic that are vital to the its continued economic development.

Russia has been a key partner in Iran's nuclear program, winning an estimated US$800 million-US$1 billion contract to build the Bushehr nuclear reactor.

Both are also keen to avoid the precedent set by the implementation of a sanctions regime.

Nonetheless, Russia and China appear willing to back an incentives scheme, proposed by European countries, that would see Iranian moves towards compliance with UN demands on its nuclear program rewarded with as yet undefined nuclear, economic, and possibly security inducements.