ANTALYA, March 1. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Turkey, where he is set to participate in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 1-2 upon an official invitation from his Turkish diplomat Hakan Fidan.

A TASS correspondent reported earlier in the day that the aircraft carrying Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov landed at the Antalya Airport in the early hours of Friday.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova announced earlier that Lavrov will hold bilateral talks with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during the forum.

The top diplomats of Russia and Turkey are expected to discuss a wide range of issues, primarily the current state and prospects for bilateral cooperation in the spheres of mutual interest - trade, energy, security, banking and tourism. The ministers will also discuss a schedule of bilateral contacts at various levels.

Earlier in the week, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the ministers will exchange views on the latest state of affairs in the intra-Ukrainian crisis, analyze the current situation on the battleground, and discuss the principles of a peaceful settlement of the conflict that is possible exclusively on the condition that Kiev takes into account Russian interests and concerns."

Lavrov will also hold a number of other bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the forum in Antalya, namely with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Bakhtiyor Saidov, Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Minister Zheenbek Kulubayev and King of Eswatini Mswati III.

According to the forum’s official website, "In its third edition, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum will gather heads of states and governments, ministers, diplomats, business leaders, academics, think-tankers, and youth and media representatives for an all-encompassing debate."

"The overarching theme of this year’s Forum will be ‘Advancing Diplomacy in Times of Turmoil’," the organizers stated. "It aims to serve as a thorough reflection and the means for searching a peaceful way out of the turbulent period our world is going through. Ongoing wars, acts of terrorism, irregular migration, rise of xenophobia and Islamophobia, unforeseen risks of AI, climate change, natural disasters, pandemics and widening socioeconomic gaps form a non-exhaustive list of global challenges.".