MOSCOW, March 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Spain, where he will have talks with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo and will be received by King Juan Carlos I and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, the Russian foreign ministry reported.

“Topics for discussion with the Spanish leaders will include the current state of bilateral cooperation, which is at the level of strategic partnership,” the ministry said. “Taking into account the forthcoming eighth regular meeting of the joint Russian-Spanish intergovernmental commission on economic and industrial cooperation due to be held in Madrid on March 20-21, the focus will be made on the implementation of the most important projects in the trade-and-economic and investment spheres. The sides will discuss the current state of cooperation between Russian and Spanish ministries and agencies and prospects for the further expansion of the legal framework of bilateral relations.”

It is also planned to discuss cooperation between the two countries’ foreign ministries. “In order to ensure regular exchange of view on the most topical bilateral and international subjects, Lavrov and Garcia-Margallo will sign a plan of political consultations between the Russian ministry of foreign affairs and the Spanish ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation for 2014-2015,” the ministry said.

The Russian foreign ministry stressed that the political dialogue between Moscow and Madrid traditionally demonstrated high degree of mutual understanding based on close or similar approaches to the key problems on the current agenda. The ministers will exchange views on relations between Russia and the European Union and NATO, on prospects for Russian-Spanish cooperation within the United Nations. They will also discuss the situation in Ukraine, in Syria, in the Middle East and North Africa, and other problems of the international agenda.