Russian Foreign Min to visit Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba from Apr 17-21

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit several Latin American countries from April 17 to 21, the Russian foreign ministry said on Sunday, Russian News Agency TASS reported.

"From April 17 to 21, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will visit several Latin American countries, including Brazil, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba. The Russian foreign minister will have a rich program, which will include meetings with these countries' leaders and talks with the foreign ministers," it said.

According to the ministry, the key goal of Lavrov's tour is to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation between the countries in the political, trade-and-economic, educational, humanitarian, cultural, and other spheres, TASS reported.

"The talks are planned to focus on issues of strengthening the legal framework of the present-day world, which is based on the United Nations Charter," the ministry said, TASS reported.

"Latin America is a friendly region, one of the centres of the formation of a multipolar world and Russian plans to maintain a dynamic dialogue with it, develop constructive cooperation free from any dictation from the outside," the ministry added.