Lavrov and Kerry to meet Saturday in Beijing: report

MOSCOW - Agence France-Presse

Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speak at the Chief of Mission Residence in Paris October 14, 2014. REUTERS Photo

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet US Secretary of State John Kerry in Beijing on Saturday ahead of next week's APEC summit, Russian news agencies reported on Friday.
      
"The meeting between Lavrov and Kerry is planned for November 8 on the sidelines of the preparations for the APEC summit in Beijing," the agencies quoted a source at the foreign ministry as saying.
     
Russia's Vladimir Putin is travelling to Beijing Sunday to hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and take part in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. He will not meet US President Barack Obama, the Kremlin said this week.        

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum is to be held in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday, while the G20 will convene in Australia days later, on November 15-16.
      
Relations between Russia and the United States have become the iciest since the end of the Cold War after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in March.        

Russia is blamed for stirring the war between Kiev and the pro-Moscow separatists, including by sending its own troops across the border to eastern Ukraine, where over 4,000 people have been killed by fighting since April.
      
Kerry on Wednesday warned Russia that sanctions pressure could be intensified if Moscow does not show committment to the ceasefire agreement signed in September in the Belarussian capital Minsk.