US Vice President to Meet With Merkel, Other Heads of State in Munich

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Pence is set to arrive in Munich on Friday. On Saturday he will hold a bilateral meeting with Merkel, which will be followed by bilateral talks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim.

Pence will also hold a meeting with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid, Latvian President Raimonds Vejonis, and Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite on Saturday.

The Munich Security Conference (MSC) is being held on February 17-19. More than 30 heads of state and government and over 80 foreign and defense ministers are expected to attend.

Russia will be represented at the event by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who is expected to hold several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference.

The MSC is an annual major global forum founded in 1963 and devoted to discussion of security issues, which brings together hundreds of decision-makers from all over the world, state leaders, ministers, NGO, industry, media and academia representatives. The MSC is an important and relatively neutral platform for meetings and discussions between top politicians and diplomats. Russian delegation will be headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.