The 3rd ministerial meeting of the Arab-Russian Forum is began here today with participation of the foreign ministers of a number of the Arab states and Secretary General of the Arab League Dr. Nabil Al-Arabi. At the outset of the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed that the forum is an important mechanism to form joint stances towards regional and international issues, particularly providing security in the Middle East and North Africa. He added that the forum focuses on enhancing cooperation between Russian and the Arab world in addition to reviewing regional and international issues of common interest. Foreign ministers of UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen, Libya, Oman, Sudan and Algeria participate in the meeting.