<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;"><b>Russian Ambassador in Dhaka Alexander Mantytskiy instead of the country’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will represent his country at the IORA meeting scheduled for November 24.</b></span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is likely to have a telephone conversation with his Bangladesh counterpart Dr AK Abdul Momen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam confirmed this to UNB on Sunday as there is a revised decision regarding his planned Dhaka visit.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Bangladesh side was taking preparation for a bilateral meeting between Foreign Minister Momen and his Russian counterpart apart from a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But the Russian side conveyed its revised decision to Bangladesh.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The reason behind the revised decision could not be known.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Russian Foreign Minister was scheduled to visit Bangladesh on November 23 mainly to attend the 22nd IORA Council of Ministers (COM) meeting to be held in Dhaka on November 24.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Russia is a dialogue partner of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) while Bangladesh is the current chair of IORA.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will brief the media on the upcoming IORA meeting on Monday. UNB</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; "> bnbd24/kh</div>