ROME, February 18. /TASS/. Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill and Pope Francis may meet in June or July, Russian Ambassador to Vatican City Alexander Avdeyev said on Friday.

"Preparations for a second meeting between Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill are underway now for around June-July," he said at a Russian-Italian conference in Genoa. "The place hasn’t been chosen yet."

The heads of the churches first met in Cuba in 2016. The diplomat said the tentative time for the meeting was originally named by the Russian Orthodox Church. A representative for the Russian Orthodox Church told TASS the talks on the place and time of the meeting were "not completed yet."

Francis mentioned preparations for a meeting with Patriarch Kirill when the pope held a news conference on the way back from a trip to Greece and Cyprus in December.