Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom arrives in Moscow later in the day with a package of cooperation proposals. A Russian-Guatemalan summit meeting will take place on March 22, 2010. The visit is taking place at Dmitry Medvedev's invitation. The package of cooperation proposals includes oil and gas, telecommunications, transport and tourism. Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and other Russian top officials will be discussing the possible cooperation mechanisms.
On Monday there will be the signing of a joint declaration and a draft of bilateral deals, including on military technical cooperation between the two countries. President Colom during his visit, the first top-level visit in the history of bilateral relations, will have a meeting with the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill. Guatemala is home to the one and only Orthodox monastery in Central America.The Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, was in Guatemala on the 15th of February 2010 on his first official visit. He meet with Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, Foreign Minister Haroldo Rodas, the chairman of the National Congress of Guatemala and the mayor of Guatemala City, ex-president Alvaro Arzu.
During his visit the dialogue was focused on the prospects of enhancing bilateral cooperation in various fields, from trade-and-economic to humanitarian, and to exchange views on a wide range of international and regional issues. Also the Foreign Ministers Lavrov and Rodas signed an Intergovernmental Agreement on cooperation in fighting against illicit traffic in and use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
In 2007, the Russian embassy was opened in Guatemala, which had until recently remained one of the few Latin American countries where Russia had no permanent representation at ambassadorial level.
