Lavrov to visit Portugal before yearend

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay a working visit to Portugal before the yearend, Russia’s Ambassador to Portugal Mikhail Kamynin said in an interview with TASS.

"The visit will take place before the yearend. The date has already been agreed," he said. "The visit will be announced by the two countries’ foreign ministries."

According to the Russian ambassador, Lavrov’s talks in Lisbon are seen as a "major and timely opportunity to give an extra impetus to practical Russian-Portuguese cooperation."

"Thus, the minister’s visit will make it possible to draw middle-term plans concerning our political dialogue, to open up new pages in it, to share our visions of the situation in Europe, Africa and Latin America, and to exchange views on other topical matters," Kamynin said.

The Russian diplomat stressed that the two countries are set to open a new chapter in their relations. "Along with trade-and-economic and investment cooperation, we have a big potential for joint work on a number of pressing international tracks," he noted. "These include issues related to the United Nations, problems of new challenges and threats, international information security and, in a broader sense, the entire sphere of information and communications technologies.

As for the material sphere, they are advanced know-how and high tech, peaceful use of outer space, energy generation, railways, pharmaceuticals, and so forth."

"We will discuss these and other matters during the upcoming contacts in general, and high-level contacts in particular," the Russian ambassador added.