The head of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and Luxembourg Sergei Lavrov Jean Asselborn will discuss in the capital of Russia on the last working day of the week the situation in Ukraine and relations between Russia and the EU, according to a report from the Russian Ministry of foreign Affairs.

"in the course of the forthcoming negotiations of the head of the foreign Ministers will discuss the state and ways of further development of cooperation between Russia and Luxembourg in bilateral Affairs and addressing the most pressing international issues, as well as a wide range of issues of cooperation between Russia and the European Union in the context of the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council in the period 1 July to 31 December 2015. Close attention will be paid to Russia-EU relations, which is undergoing a difficult stage in its history on the background of the fall in Ukraine ", - reported in the document.

As explained in the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the subject of dialogue on the international agenda will be the development of the situation in Ukraine, the situation in the middle East and North Africa, for example, efforts to counter the Islamic state, middle East settlement, the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, Yemen, and Libya.

in the Russian international Ministry stressed that in the capital of Russia hope that the Luxembourg presidency of the EU Council will support the removal of artificial barriers to cooperation with the Russian Federation and the joint solution of problems of mutual interest and requires joint efforts.

the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stressed that cooperation between Russia and Luxembourg in the last few years has developed very successfully in the most different areas." in the current "cooling" in relations between Russia and Western countries believe it is necessary to avoid a major setback in bilateral relations with our European partners, including and Luxembourg ", - reported in the document.

the Department also indicated that the negative impact of anti-Russian punishment of the EU, supported by the same and Luxembourg, as well as taken the Russian response could not affect relations between Russia and the EU and Russian-Luxembourg trade relations.

in the period from January to April 2015 the trade turnover between Russia and the EU decreased to 81, 5 billion, which is 37, 7% less than in the same period last year. Exports amounted to $ 60 billion, a decrease of 34%, imports 21 billion dollars (45, 5%), said the Ministry of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.

The trade turnover of Russia with Luxembourg in January-April of 2015 decreased by 32% to 47. 5 million compared with the same period in 2014. It is inherent in the excess of imports (30, $ 4 million for January-April 2015) over exports (17, 1 million). For the first four months of the current year, Russian Exports increased by 7, 5 times in comparison with the same period last year, while imports fell by half, according to the document.

sections: Politics