MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2019) Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will head to Finland on Thursday for the annual gathering of the Council of Europe's top diplomats in Helsinki.
The 129th Committee of Ministers' session will see foreign ministers fly in from 47 member states for a meeting that will seek to reshape the 70-year-old organization.
The two-day event will deal with key challenges outlined in the annual report of its secretary general, Thorbjorn Jagland.
The impasse over Russia's role in the Council's Parliamentary Assembly will be high on the agenda. The Russian delegation left after it was stripped of voting rights over the 2014 Ukraine conflict.
Jagland has warned Russia that it risks dropping out of the Council in June for being two years in arrears on membership fees.
He has admitted, however, that millions in Europe stood to suffer from the five-year dispute. Every member nation, he said, is entitled to full participation in the Council's organs. The solution is in the hands of the Committee of Ministers.
