Sergei Lavrov will hold a series of meetings with the EU troika in Luxembourg, attend a CIS foreign ministers' summit in Astana and a meeting of the Russia-NATO council in Oslo.
The meeting with the EU troika Monday will consider negotiations on a cooperation agreement to replace the Russian-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which expires December 1, 2007. In November 2006 Poland imposed a veto on the start of negotiations, demanding that Moscow cancel a ban on Polish meat imports.
The parties will also consider arrangements for a Russia-EU summit scheduled for May in Samara, discuss U.S. plans to deploy an air defense system in Europe and exchange ideas on the Kosovo settlement, the Iranian nuclear program, and the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On Tuesday the Russian foreign minister will meet with his Luxembourg counterpart.
Lavrov is also expected to attend a meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers Wednesday, which will consider a broad range of issues on cooperation within the Commonwealth. The ministers will focus on border protection issues, and are expected to sign several relevant agreements. The diplomats will also discuss the activity of peacekeepers in the CIS and consider a draft agreement on social and legal guarantees for them.
The Russian foreign minister will attend the 62nd jubilee session of the UN Economic Commission for Europe in Geneva Thursday, which will mark the Commission's 60th anniversary.
On April 26-27, Lavrov will take part in a meeting of the Russia-NATO's foreign ministers. He is also due to meet with Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The Council's meeting is expected to focus on U.S plans to deploy air defense systems in Eastern Europe.
In January, the U.S. announced plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in the Czech Republic and Poland to counter possible attacks from Iran or North Korea, whose nuclear programs have provoked serious international concerns. Russia, which has been anxious about NATO bases that have appeared in former Communist-bloc countries and ex-Soviet republics, consider the plans to deploy anti-missile systems in Central Europe as a national security threat and a destabilizing factor for Europe.
