Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Alfonso Dastis made a working visit to Moscow on June 6-7 at the invitation of Sergey Lavrov. 

Prospects for bilateral political and economic partnership were a particular focus of attention at the meeting. The two ministers discussed bilateral trade and economic relations with a view to bolstering ties following the 9^th meeting of the Intergovernmental Mixed Russian-Spanish Commission for Economic and Industrial Cooperation in May this year.

Humanitarian and cultural cooperation was also on the agenda, including in light of the results of the reciprocal bilateral Year of Tourism events held in 2016-2017. 

Following recent terrorist attacks in a number of European countries, the two ministers spoke in favour of deepening bilateral cooperation in combatting the terrorist threat. Mr Lavrov and Mr Dastis agreed to hold a new meeting of the Russian-Spanish interagency working group on countering new threats and challenges in the nearest future. 

A substantial focus of the discussion of international issues was the current situation in Russia’s relations with the European Union and the prospects for normalisation. The two ministers also exchanged views on matters concerning NATO, the OSCE and the Council of Europe, the state of affairs in Ukraine, the situation in Syria and Libya and a number of other issues on the international agenda.  

Mr Lavrov and Mr Dastis affirmed their mutual desire to continue the regular substantive dialogue and strengthen cooperation within the principal international organisations.