MOSCOW. Oct 13 (Interfax) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he plans to discuss bilateral issues and the situation on the Korean peninsula at a meeting with Song Young-gil, the head of the South Korean Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation.
"We will be very pleased to hear your plans and your assessments of the situation in our relations. And we will certainly discuss the general situation on the Korean Peninsula," Lavrov said at the start of the meeting.
Bilateral relations between Moscow and Seoul "have been developing progressively," he said.
Lavrov also said he was confident that the work of the Presidential Committee on Northern Economic Cooperation "can help tackle our tasks in economics broadly and in a realistic way."
The South Korean official said that he attached "great importance to the beginning of operations of the working group to sign an agreement on a free trade area" between South Korea and the Eurasian Economic Union.
It is especially important "now that we [Seoul] are renegotiating the free trade area [agreement] with the U.S.," he said.