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Korea
Konstantin Vnukov
, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo-
tentiary to the Republic of Korea: The importance of the Re-
public of Korea for Russia is evident from the fact that in the
past four years there have been three visits by the Russian pres-
ident and six summits, including "meetings on the sidelines" with
two presidents of the Republic of Korea: former President, Lee
Myung-bak and the current president, Park Geun-hye.
The Republic of Korea also has become the first country in the
Asia-Pacific region with which we established a visa-free travel
regime on January 1 of this year. I do not mean purely "tourist"
countries that have a facilitated border crossing, a tourist regime. Here, everything is quite serious. What
we have here is the abolition of visa requirements between countries. Moreover, with a country that is a
G-20 member.
Besides, as the results of V.V. Putin's November visit and his top-level talks showed, there is a broad scope
for interaction. This includes interaction on such serious strategic matters as V.V. Putin's Euro-Atlantic
idea - cooperation from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as well as President Park Geun-hye's Eurasian Initiative,
which also proceeds from the premise that we should unite rather than disunite. We will receive a very big
synergetic effect from this, in particular if we integrate our railways.
Morocco
Valery Vorobiev
, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoten-
tiary to the Kingdom of Morocco: As far as our region is con-
cerned, the Middle East and North Africa is a region that has
always been and will probably always be a target, object and sub-
ject of our diplomacy.
Today, I have to deal not only with these matters but also with
the relations that are evolving in the Sahara-Sahel zone. It is a
very important, highly promising area that has huge mineral de-
posits. And of course it is not an accident that a terrorist base
is located there. Not al-Qaeda, as they say in Arabic, but precisely
a "base" in the original sense of the word. It is a base of drug trafficking, a base of illegal migration and
Morocco plays a very active role in this region. It was not an accident that in May the king of Morocco
made an almost month-long tour of the subregion.
In 2002, the king of Morocco visited Moscow; a declaration of strategic partnership was signed, but, un-
fortunately, it has not been fleshed out with concrete activities. Now the Moroccans are proposing to put
substance behind it, including in the economic sphere, trade, and what they describe as the sphere of strate-
gic business: oil, natural gas and the military sphere. In other words, the Moroccans want to move to a new
level of relations.
There have never been any problems between our states. As is known, friendship is measured by centuries.
We all know that first contacts took place way back under Mohammed III and Catherine II.
The king has deep respect for our president, which he often demonstrates.
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