MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is due to address the senators in the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, during the government hour on Wednesday with a report on the most pressing issues of the country’s foreign policy.
In his report, Lavrov is expected to focus on over 20 questions that have been sent to him earlier by the Federation Council’s foreign affairs committee. He is also due to answer more questions of the senators during the discussion, which will take around an hour.
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"Of course, there are many issues concerning the Eurasian Economic Union, relations with our close neighbors, the Commonwealth of Independent States, [relations with] China and other superpowers. This also includes issues linked to the current Ukrainian crisis and other pressing situations in the world," said Konstantin Kosachev, who chairs the upper house’s foreign affairs committee.
Kosachev told reporters that he expected the upcoming discussion at the plenary meeting to be "substantive and robust."
The deputy head of the Federation Council's committee for constitutional law, Konstantin Dobrynin, expressed hope that Lavrov would discuss the events in Ukraine. The crisis is "far beyond the framework of the Ukrainian context although today Ukraine is considered as the main ground where wills and interests of the leading world powers clash," he said.
"The sooner we begin the step by step restoration of normal and mutually respecting relations with the Western countries, the faster we will find a joint solution so that the bloodshed in certain areas of Ukraine ends and people could live a normal life," the lawmaker said.
Dobrynin said Lavrov would unveil his stance on the ways of settling the global crisis of confidence which is "unprecedented in the international and political practice."
Vyacheslav Timchenko, deputy chairman of the Federation Council’s committee on regulating and organizing parliament activity, said he expected Lavrov to focus on the key areas of cooperation between Russia and the West.
The senator said he believed Lavrov would sum up the results of the recent session of the Committee of ministers of the Council of Europe in Brussels, the meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Sochi and determine the areas of further cooperation with the Western countries.
"And certainly, we wait for an expert opinion on how the events on the global space will develop in the second half of 2015,"he said.