Medvedev, Merkel to meet in Hannover July 18-19 – Kremlin

Medvedev and Merkel are also expected to meet participants in the Russian-German forum, "St. Petersburg Dialogue", and businessmen of both countries, the press service said.

Earlier, presidential chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin said, "The ministries and agencies coordinated the agenda. Both parties are completing the work on documents due to be signed after the summit."

The interstate consultations "are the major political event of the year in Russian-German relations", he added.

The format of such meetings is long-standing. The interstate consultations were launched in 1998, when Boris Yeltsin was Russia's first president.

These top-level consultations are traditionally held once a year in Russia and Germany in turns. St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg hosted the Russian-German consultations in 2008 and 2010 and Munich hosted the event in 2009.

The consultations in Hannover will be the 13th round of the interstate consultations next week. The delegations will be led by President Medvedev and Chancellor Merkel.

The bilateral interstate consultations are also held simultaneously in time with the St. Petersburg Dialogue public forum.