MOSCOW, April 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Thursday with his Belarusian counterpart Vladimir Makei to discuss cooperation between the two countries on the international arena in the light of efforts to ease tensions over the political crisis in Ukraine.

The two ministers met on the sidelines of a Moscow meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.

Lavrov and Makei “discussed bilateral Russian-Belarusian relations, including a schedule of summit and top level contacts, the functioning of the Union State [of Russia and Belarus], cooperation between the two countries on the international arena, especially in the light of the necessity to alleviate tension caused by the political crisis in Ukraine,” he ministry said.