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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres begins visit to Russia

The plane with Guterres on board has landed at one of Moscow’s airports on Tuesday night

MOSCOW, June 20. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has arrived in Moscow, where he is expected to meet with Russia’s president and foreign minister and attend the Portugal vs. Morocco game of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

TASS sources said the plane with Guterres on board has landed at one of Moscow’s airports on Tuesday night.

Guterres revealed his plans to meet with Putin and attend the game as he addressed a news conference in Oslo. By the time of reporting, however, neither Guterres himself nor the Kremlin press service had provided details on the timing of the meeting, although it was known that Guterres had spare time on Wednesday morning, while on Thursday he was expected to take part in a number of public events.

Guterres said he was using an opportunity to visit Russia for discussions with the Russian leadership of the issues related to various spheres of UN operations. He especially singled out Russia’s role in the UN efforts, since this country is one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council.

At 15:00 hours on Wednesday, Guterres will attend the match between the Portuguese and Moroccan teams at the Luzhniki stadium. Quite obviously, he is a fan of Team Portugal, his homeland.

The Portuguese drew the first match with the Spaniards 3-3.

Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said earlier the talks between Guterres and Lavrov, scheduled for Thursday, will concentrate on the current status of international relations, including the crisis of multilateralism in world diplomacy, the role of the UN Security Council in the solution of the most pressing international and regional problems including Syria and some other aspects of relations between Russia and the UN.

On Thursday, Guterres will visit a session of the Valdai international discussions club where the club members and he will discuss the UN role in regulating international relations.