PREVIEW: PACE President Begins His Moscow Visit On Monday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 15th March, 2021) President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Rik Daems will be on a visit in Russia on March 15-16 and is expected to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Initially, Daems' visit to Moscow was planned for November of last year, but it was interrupted because of coronavirus concerns.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, confirmed on Friday that the PACE president was going to arrive in Moscow on Monday, at the invitation of Viacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the State Duma (lower house) of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

According to Zakharova, Daems plans to discuss the situation in the Council of Europe and pressing international issues with Lavrov.

The PACE president is also expected to hold talks with Volodin, as well as Russia's Federation Council (upper house) speaker, Valentina Matviyenko, and Chairperson of the Russian delegation to PACE, Petr Tolstoi. Daems will also meet with members of the Russian delegation and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) representatives.

Volodin said ahead of his planned meeting with the PACE president that he intended to discuss the activities of foreign IT companies and "digital sovereignty" with Daems. The State Duma chairman stressed that Russia stands for a respectful, balanced dialogue without double standards.