U.S. Secretary of State Tillerson to visit Russia on April 11-12

The Russian Foreign Ministry has announced that Rex Tillerson will make his first visit to Moscow as the U.S. Secretary of State in the Donald Trump administration on April 11-12 to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The ministry said in a statement that the meeting is expected "to discuss topical international security issues faced by the international community and requiring the joint efforts by our countries," reported the Russian state-owned news agency Tass.

"They include the struggle against terrorism, in the first place, against the ISIL [the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] and other terrorist groupings that have seized a part of the Syrian territory, the settlement of the Syrian, Palestinian-Israeli, Yemeni, Libyan, Afghan and other conflicts and de-escalation of the situation on the Korean peninsula," the ministry's statement further read.

The Russian Foreign Ministry noted that attention will also be paid to the situation in Ukraine with the focus on the need for Kiev to fulfil its obligations under the Minsk accords.

According to the ministry, Lavrov will also raise the issues "of the need to remove numerous irritants in the bilateral sphere of relations, such as the arrests of Russian citizens by American special services in third countries, the violation of the rights of Russian adopted children in the United States, the creation of artificial difficulties for our diplomats to fulfil their service duties.

"The expansion of trade and investment ties and the development of cultural, scientific, sports and other exchanges are also important," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia's Foreign Ministry did not rule out that the sides might consider the issues of arms control.

The ministry blamed Barack Obama's administration for a "deep crisis" in Russia-U.S. relations and welcomed the Trump administration's declared intention to mend the rift.

"On our part, we are open for interaction in various spheres on the basis of the principles of equality, non-interference in internal affairs and the respect of the interests of each other," Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

The ministry added, "We expect the visit by the new US Secretary of State to help bring the Russian-American relations to the trajectory of sustainable development and allow raising the level of mutual understanding. This would meet the interests of not only our peoples but also of the entire world and would contribute to stronger global stability.