Gulf foreign ministers will gather in the Bahraini capital Manama on Sunday for the 168th session of the GCC Ministerial Council, Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi announced. The meeting will be chaired by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, who holds the council's current presidency.

The 9th Joint Ministerial Meeting of the Strategic Dialogue between the GCC and the Russian Federation will take place on the sidelines.

According to Albudaiwi, the ministers will discuss ways to strengthen joint Gulf action and review recent regional and international developments. The dialogue with Russia, he said, follows the leaders' directives to deepen relations with other countries and regional groupings and to build effective strategic partnerships.

The joint meeting will look at ways to expand cooperation and exchange views on regional and international issues. Albudaiwi noted that since the strategic dialogue memorandum of understanding was signed in November 2011, the two sides have kept working to take Gulf-Russian relations further.