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Russian, Dutch foreign ministers to discuss bilateral relations on February 14

On February 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra will discuss the state of bilateral relations

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. On February 14, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra will discuss the state of bilateral relations that have been difficult during the past years, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

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The Netherlands is following a policy restricting bilateral contacts with Russia between government members, except for meetings between foreign ministers, the ministry reiterated.

"The importance of preserving dialogue channels between the foreign ministries is undoubtable," the Russian ministry stressed. "The state of bilateral Russian-Dutch relations in which there were difficulties in the recent years will be discussed at the upcoming negotiations between the Russian and Dutch foreign ministers."

The Russian Foreign Ministry explained that Russian-Dutch relations were shadowed by an "unprecedented anti-Russian campaign unleashed in Dutch media and the bias of the probe into the crash of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing in 2014 in eastern Ukraine led by the Netherlands," as well as the Amsterdam court’s decision to transfer exhibits from the "Crimea: A Golden Island in the Black Sea" exhibition to Ukraine instead of Crimea’s museums.

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