Russia hails agreement on resumption of six-party talks

Russia termed "extremely positive" the agreed resumption of the six-party talks on the Korean Peninsula in the near future, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alexeyev said on Tuesday.

"We are sincere in our hope that the talks will be resumed in the near future," Alexeyev, the chief of relations with Asian countries at the Foreign Ministry, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

At the invitation of China, the heads of delegations to the talks from China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States had an informal meeting in Beijing on Tuesday.

The three sides had a "candid" and "in-depth" exchange of views on continuing efforts to advance the process of the talks and agreed to resume them soon "at a time convenient to the six parties," the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"We had been briefed in advance that there was going to be an informal trilateral meeting," Alexeyev said.

"We had anticipated and hoped the resumption of the six-party talks would be agreed on," Alexeyev said. "This information is not full yet, because only three parties to the talks have come to terms."

Nevertheless, "everybody in the world hails the very instance of the Beijing meeting and the adoption of the brief statement," he said.

"The return of all sides to the six-party process and other details remain outside the brackets for the time being. It remains to be seen, though, how much time will be needed to arrange for the meeting," he added.

The last round of talks, involving China, the DPRK, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan, ended last November in Beijing with a chairman's statement, in which the parties agreed to resume the talks as soon as possible.

Source: Xinhua