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Finnish President to meet senior Russian diplomat on September 12

A meeting between Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto and US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon will take place on September 11

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva via AP

Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto

© Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Lehtikuva via AP

HELSINKI, September 11. /TASS/. Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto will hold a meeting with Deputy Head of the Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Ryabkov on Tuesday, September 12, in Helsinki, according to the information published on the presidential office’s website on Monday.

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Finnish president: Dialog with Putin is direct and clear

In addition, a meeting between Niinisto and US Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Shannon will take place on Monday.

"We can’t say what will be on the agenda of these meetings. But they are related to those negotiations which Ryabkov and Shannon are holding here on these dates," Presidential Spokesperson and Director of Communications Katri Makkonen told TASS.

As the US State Department reported earlier, Ryabkov and Shannon plan to discuss cooperation between the states and areas which are cause for the two countries' concern on September 11-12 in Helsinki.

The establishment of the bilateral Ryabkov-Shannon dialogue channel was one of the key takeaways of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit to Moscow in April. In particular, an agreement on appointing special representatives from the Foreign Ministry and the US State Department was reached. They’ve been charged with analyzing both countries’ current difficulties.

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