U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is anxious to meet his Russian counterpart Anatoly Serdyukov on September 15 to discuss a wide range of issues, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrellsaid.

"On Wednesday of next week, the secretary will welcome Russian Minister of Defense Anatoly Serdyukov to the Pentagon for the first time. The secretary has invited his Russian counterpart here for a two-day visit, where they will discuss items of shared interest to our bilateral defense relationship, including defense reform," Morrell told a press briefing.

The meeting will be very interesting since it is the first visit of the Russian defense minister to the Pentagon, while Gates is a well-known expert on Russia, he sai .

"I mean, here is Secretary Gates, who made his career analyzing the Soviets, and here he is as the Secretary of Defense for the first time inviting his Russian counterpart to come to the building," Morrell said.

Gates and his Russian counterpart will mostly focus on discussing how they are both conducting reforms in their respective militaries, he said.

"They are both taking on very bold, very ambitious reform initiatives within their respective militaries, and I think they want to talk about how that's going. I think this will probably be a very interesting conversation as they both sort of wrestle the bureaucracies, the institutional forces in their militaries," Morrell said.

WASHINGTON, September 10 (RIA Novosti)