MOSCOW, April 5. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will visit Moscow on April 11-12 to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.

"On April 11-12, the US Secretary of State Tillerson will make a working visit to Moscow," the statement reads. "This is his first visit to our country as Secretary of State in the Trump administration."

Agenda of the meeting

The meeting between the Russian foreign minister and his American counterpart is expected "to discuss topical international security issues faced by the international community and requiring the joint efforts by our countries," the Russian Foreign Ministry announced.

"They include the struggle against terrorism, in the first place, against the ISIL [the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] and other terrorist groupings that have seized a part of the Syrian territory, the settlement of the Syrian, Palestinian-Israeli, Yemeni, Libyan, Afghan and other conflicts and de-escalation of the situation on the Korean peninsula," the ministry's statement says.

Attention will also be paid to the situation in Ukraine with the focus on the need for Kiev to fulfil its obligations under the Minsk accords, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

At a meeting with Tillerson, Lavrov will also raise the issues "of the need to remove numerous irritants in the bilateral sphere of relations, such as the arrests of Russian citizens by American special services in third countries, the violation of the rights of Russian adopted children in the United States, the creation of artificial difficulties for our diplomats to fulfil their service duties," the ministry said.

"The expansion of trade and investment ties and the development of cultural, scientific, sports and other exchanges are also important," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry did not rule out that the sides might consider the issues of arms control.

Expectations 

As was stated by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the Russian-US relations have been in a deep crisis in recent years on the initiative of the previous US administration. The desire stated by the new US administration to change the situation for the better deserves praise but judgements should be made only on the basis of real deeds, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"On our part, we are open for interaction in various spheres on the basis of the principles of equality, non-interference in internal affairs and the respect of the interests of each other," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"We expect the visit by the new US Secretary of State to help bring the Russian-American relations to the trajectory of sustainable development and allow raising the level of mutual understanding. This would meet the interests of not only our peoples but also of the entire world and would contribute to stronger global stability," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.