John Kerry to visit Russia soon: Lavrov

MOSCOW - New Secretary of State of the United States John Kerry is expected to visit Russia shortly, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.

US Vice-President Joe Biden has confirmed that Kerry had received the invitation and "expects to make use of it soon," Lavrov told Interfax news agency aboard the flight back to Moscow from Munich, where he had attended an international security conference.

Lavrov noted that problems would always exist between large countries like Russia and America. "They should be dealt with on the basis of equality and respect for each other's interests, and one should avoid artificially creating problems."

His comments came as some of the US recent moves, in his words, "have been seen as quite exacerbated in our public opinion. "

"We hope that there won't be any more reason for that," said the minister.

Lavrov also said the two nations hold relatively common approaches for issues like "combating the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, combating terrorism, drug trafficking and organized crime."

"It's very difficult to get anything done without Russia and the United States on an overwhelming majority of international problems," he stressed. "However, Moscow always has its own independent position."