Russia State Visit

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President Moon Jae-in is paying a state visit to Russia, where he will hold summit talks with President Putin and cheer for Team Korea in the World Cup. In an earlier interview with Russian media, Moon stressed trilateral cooperation with North Korea and Russia for stability and economic development in Northeast Asia.​

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President Moon Jae-in departed for Moscow Thursday morning on Air Force One from Seoul Air Base for a two-night, four-day state visit to Russia. On the first day of his visit Thursday, Moon will deliver a speech at the State Duma, the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, becoming the first South Korean president to do so. He will then meet with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. On Friday, Moon will sit down for summit talks with President Vladimir Putin and also attend a state banquet. He will then fly to the southwestern city of Rostov-On-Don to watch the FIFA World Cup match between Korea and Mexico set for Saturday. He's expected to meet and encourage the players. In an interview with Russian media on Wednesday in Seoul, Moon said that once a peace regime is established on the Korean Peninsula, it's necessary to develop a multilateral security cooperation system for Northeast Asia in the mid-to-long term, and vowed to closely cooperate with Russia. On the economy, Moon also underlined three-way cooperation involving the two Koreas and Russia, and noted that earnest discussions can begin in the fields of rail transport, gas and electricity. President Moon also urged North Korea to present a more concrete denuclearization roadmap and the U.S. to swiftly lay out comprehensive corresponding measures as a follow-up to their recent summit talks.