MOSCOW, November 9./TASS/: Moscow and the Vatican have agreed to bolster bilateral cooperation within international and European agencies in order to protect Christians, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a news conference on Tuesday, following talks with the Secretary of the Holy See for Relations with States, Paul Richard Gallagher.
During their talks, the parties specifically focused on the Middle East region, in particular the developments in Syria, Libya and Iraq. "Also from the point of view of the situation in which the Christian communities find themselves in these countries," Lavrov stressed. "We have agreed to strengthen cooperation on these issues - protection of Christians - in the UN, in the OSCE and in the Council of Europe," the top diplomat went on to say.
Russia welcomes the efforts of the Holy See aimed at "strengthening international stability, peaceful settlement of conflict situations and the development of an inter-Church dialogue," he said. "We see eye-to-eye as to the need to protect the institution of the family, we agreed to coordinate efforts at international platforms to defend the enduring spiritual and moral Christian values," Lavrov said.
Moscow "is interested in giving a further boost to scientific, academic contacts" with Vatican, he added. "The planned for the signing agreement on mutual recognition of education, qualification and academic degrees is intended to facilitate this," the Russian diplomat summed up.
