Russian foreign minister to visit Sri Lanka.

MOSCOW, October 22 (Itar-Tass) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov will visit Sri Lanka on October 26 to discuss prospects for
broadening cooperation between Russia and Sri Lanka, spokesman for the
Russian Foreign Ministry Andrei Nesterenko said Thursday.
Lavrov's talks with Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse and other
senior officials will focus on important international and regional
problems, the present state of bilateral cooperation and prospects for the
development of comprehensive cooperation between the two countries,
Nesterenko said.
Russia made a concrete contribution to the international assistance,
rendered to the government of Sri Lanka to overcome the consequences of a
military conflict, sending a cargo of humanitarian supplies to Colombo and
a group of experts in field engineering of the Russian Ministry for
Emergency Situations on October 8. Besides, Russia has contributed 500,000
dollars for assistance to refugees in the UN framework, Nesterenko said.
Russia intends to reaffirm its aspirations to strengthen
cooperation with Sri Lanka in future in an anti- terrorist direction, in a
bilateral format and on an international level, including in the framework
of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that granted Sri Lanka "a partner
in a dialogue" status in June, 2009 with Russia's active support,
Nesterenko said.
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