MOSCOW, September 15. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov will visit Zimbabwe on September 16 within the framework of his African tour. He is to hold talks with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Russia's Foreign Ministry official announced on Monday.

The Ministry official pointed out, "It is planned to discuss a wide range of matters concerning bilateral relations, as well as key aspects of the global and regional agenda. The sides will consider matters aimed at strengthening the legal-treaty basis of bilateral relations, specifically at reaching out to signing a number of draft intergovernmental and inter-agency documents".

The visit is expected "to give a new impetus to the traditionally friendly relations and a trust-based political dialogue with Zimbabwe", the Foreign Ministry official said. "Russia appreciates a high level of mutual understanding between the two countries at the UN, and proximity of their approaches to most of matters of international life," the official emphasized.

The Russian Foreign Ministry official said, "Considering Zimbabwe's high prestige in African affairs and the country's presidency in the Southern African Development Community, much importance will be attached to the problems of settling conflicts and crisis situations on the African continent".

"Russia is especially grateful to Harare for its firm support for Russia's principled position on the Ukrainian crisis. We share the viewpoint on the unacceptability of the use the sanctions regime by individual countries and human rights-related issues for an interference in the internal affairs of other states".

Sergey Lavrov is expected to attend a ceremony marking an official start of a joint project for the development of the Zimbabwean deposit of platinum group metals "Darwendale which "is of priority importance and is intended to become the locomotive of the development of the entire spectrum of bilateral trade-and-economic and investment contacts". On the Russian side, the project involves a consortium consising of the Rostekhnologiii state corporation, Vneshekonombank, as well as an investment and industrial group "Vi Holding.

"We support the necessity to put the tangible political attainments in bilateral relations onto the plane of mutually beneficial trade-and-economic interaction," Ministry official pointed out.

"A contribution to the attainment of this goal is expected to be made by the Intergovernmental Russia-Zimbabwe commission for economic, trade, science and technolgy cooperation, the first full-scale session of which is held in Harare on September 15"

"The Commission is expected to discuss the state of and prospects for bilateral trade-and-economic and investment cooperation, primarily that in the fields of mining, geological prospecting, energy, agriculture, infrastructure construction, and tourism," Riussia' Foreign Ministry official said.