(Communicated by the Foreign Minister's Bureau)
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Avigdor Liberman will depart today (Sunday, 14 June 2009) on a working visit to Europe, the United States and Canada.
In Luxembourg, FM Liberman will participate in the meeting of the EU-Israel Association Council. Prior to that, FM Liberman will hold bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers Radosław Sikorski of Poland, Franco Frattini of Italy, Jean Asselborn of Luxembourg, Jan Kohout of the Czech Republic, Carl Bildt of Sweden and Per Stig Moller of Denmark. FM Liberman will also meet with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, with the European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, with heads of the Jewish community in Brussels, and with other officials.
From Europe, FM Liberman will proceed to Washington D.C., where he will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He will also meet with U.S. National Security Advisor General James L. Jones, with the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Senator John Kerry, with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Howard Berman, with the Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Senator Joe Lieberman, with the Minority Whip of the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Eric Cantor, with the Senate Minority Whip, Senator Jon Kyl and other officials. During his visit to Washington, FM Liberman will also conduct a visit of solidarity at the Unites States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.
At the conclusion of his visit to Washington, FM Liberman will travel to New York, where he will meet with UN Secretary General BanKi-Moon, with heads of Jewish organizations in the United States and with other officials. He will later depart to Ottawa, where he will meet with Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon and other officials.
FM Liberman is due to return to Israel on Tuesday, 23 June 2009.