Lavrov to visit Serbia, Turkey next week to discuss economic cooperation

Moscow: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit Serbia and Turkey next week, Maria Zakharova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, said on Friday.

“On June 6-7, the visit of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry to Serbia will take place. A meeting with the president of this country [Alexandar Vucic], negotiations with the foreign minister, the chairman of the National Assembly and the patriarch of Serbia are planned,” Zakharova told a briefing, as quoted by Sputnik. The spokeswoman also said that Lavrov will visit Ankara on June 8 to discuss the situation in Ukraine with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

“It is planned to discuss the state of and prospects for deepening cooperation on a wide range of issues, and of course we are talking about trade and economic cooperation in the context of the illegitimate sanctions against Russia imposed by the West,” Zakharova added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Lavrov will discuss ways for safe passage of Ukrainian grain during his visit to Ankara.

“Next week, the foreign minister will indeed be in Turkey, he is scheduled to have contacts there. And of course, in continuation of the top-level phone conversation, the issue of Ukrainian grain will be high on the agenda,” Peskov told reporters.

This visit comes a day after the European Union officially approved the sixth package of sanctions against Moscow, including a gradual phase-out of Russian oil and desconnection of more Russian banks from SWIFT.

“In light of Russia’s continuing war of aggression against Ukraine and Belarus’ support to it, as well as the reported atrocities committed by Russian armed forces in Ukraine, the Council decided today to impose a sixth package of economic and individual sanctions targeting both Russia and Belarus,” the European Council said in a statement.

The new package includes a ban on “the purchase, import or transfer of crude oil and certain petroleum products from Russia into the EU,” with the phase-out of Russian oil set to take “from 6 months for crude oil to 8 months for other refined petroleum products.”