MOSCOW. March 7 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov will make an official visit to the United States on March 11-14.
He will meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, sources in the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
Ivanov will visit U.S. Congress and meet with Chairman of the House of Representative's Armed Services Committee Bob Stump and some other Congressmen.
The minister will discuss bilateral military and military- technical cooperation and the U.S. plans to design and deploy a national missile defense system.
Cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, strategic stability and non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will be on the agenda, as well.
"The plans of Russia and the United States to slash strategic offensive armaments and control over that process are a separate question to be discussed by Ivanov in Washington," the source said.
The issue will be discussed in the light of a Russian visit of U.S. President George W. Bush scheduled for late May, he said.
Ivanov will also touch upon the situation in Georgia and other areas of Europe and Asia, which have problems.
"Russian-U.S. cooperation in the sphere of combating various international terrorist bodies in Afghanistan and outside it has increased for mutual advantage in the pas six months," the minister told Interfax-AVN earlier this month.
In comments on current Russian-U.S. talks to draw up an agreement to drastically cut the strategic arsenals of the two countries, he said: "There are still very many questions that remain unanswered," he noted.
"There is complete mutual understanding as regards the fundamental points of the future document, such as its compulsory character. But there are disagreements on specific mechanisms of control. I am planning to discuss these issues during my visit to the United States, too," Ivanov said.