Foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine meet in Nizhny Novgorod

Foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine – Sergei Lavrov and Konstantin Hryshchenko – met in Nizhny Novgorod on 14 February to take part in the sixth meeting of the Subcommittee on International Cooperation operating under the Russian-Ukrainian Interstate Commission. Their discussions focused on bilateral relations and current international affairs. Both ministers also attended an official opening of a Ukrainian consular office in Nizhny Novgorod. At a joint press conference, Lavrov said that the countries had reached a deal on the delimitation of the Kerch Strait and the Azov Sea, adding that a legally-binding agreement would follow in the near future. The Russian minister also said that Russia-Ukraine relations were stable and predictable, and that both countries would soon resolve their differences over Russian gas supplies and Ukrainian cheese exports. (During his trip to Nizhny Novgorod, Hryshchenko also held a meeting with the Russian president’s representative to the Nizhny Novgorod federal district Mikhail Babich and the region’s governor Valery Shantsev. The politicians discussed the prospects for closer regional cooperation.