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Russian, Belarusian Foreign Ministers to meet in Minsk at session of ministry boards

MINSK, November 18. /TASS/. A joint session of ministry boards of the Russian and Belarusian Foreign Ministries is to be held in Minsk on Tuesday. As part of it, Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei will have a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who arrived on a visit here on Monday.

Officials at the Belarusian ministry said the two ministers are expected to address reporters after 10:00 hrs Moscow Standard Time.

Members of the two ministries’ board plan to discuss join initiatives that Russia and Belarus are promoting in the international arena in the run-up to the 70th anniversary since the end of the World War II, Dmitry Mironchik, the press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry said.

Also, the agenda includes cooperation in the format of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), relations with the EU, armaments control in the current conditions, and contacts with fellow-countrymen in third countries.

The sides are also expected to sign a plan of inter-ministerial consultations for 2015.

Alexander Lukashevich, the official spokesman for the Russian ministry said earlier the practice of holding joins sessions of the ministries’ boards had earned credit as an important mechanism for coordinating collaboration between the two nations.

“We hope this traditionally fruitful and trusted exchange of opinions will enable us to review a broad scope of problems and to map out joint steps towards solving them,” he said.

Although a discussion of the Ukrainian crisis was not mentioned on the eve of the session, a number of political analysts do not rule out it may also be taken up during Lavrov’s visit to Minsk, which plays host to the meetings of a contact group that seeks solution dragged-out civil conflict in eastern Ukraine.

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