According to an announcement released by the Foreign Ministry, political consultations between the Foreign Ministry’s Secretary General, Ambassador Anastassis Mitsialis, and the Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Alexey Meshkov, took place on Monday, 24 November, in Athens and were followed by the signing of a bilateral Cultural and Scientific Cooperation Programme for the years 2014-2016.

Within the framework of his meetings in Athens, Mr. Meshkov also had talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas and was received by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos.
The talks covered issues of bilateral political and economic cooperation, as well as the scheduling of events for 2016, which has been set as a Greek-Russian year. Also discussed in the talks were current developments on the regional and international levels, with emphasis on the Cyprus issue, Ukraine, and the Middle East.

These talks were preceded, on 14 November, by Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov’s visit to Athens, as the Co-chair of the Greek-Russian Joint Interministerial Committee on Economic, Industrial and Technical Cooperation. While in Athens, he held consultations with Deputy Foreign Minister Kourkoulas and met with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Venizelos.