Moscow, May 7 (IANS) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will meet on May 14 in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, the country’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
“The talks between Lavrov and Pompeo are scheduled for May 14 in Sochi,” an official from the Ministry told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
The official said the agreement was reached during talks on Monday between Lavrov and Pompeo in Rovaniemi, Finland, in what was the top diplomats’ first face-to-face meeting for around a year.
Before that they had met in July 2018 during the Russia-US summit, where the Presidents of both countries — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin — also met.
Lavrov called his Monday’s meeting with Pompeo “good and constructive” and said it was a “step forward”.
The ongoing Venezuela crisis was at the centre of the discussions, Efe news reported.
Moscow supports the government of Nicolas Maduro while the US leads international support for Juan Guaido, who proclaimed himself interim President in January.
At the end of the meeting, which lasted less than an hour, Lavrov reiterated to the press that Russia is totally opposed to military intervention in Venezuela and warned that an operation of this nature would be “catastrophic and unjustified”.
He said that the US was also opposed to “a reckless military solution”, based on recent discussions he has had with US authorities.
–IANS
soni/