Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the 2008 NATO Summit to be organized in Bucharest, Romania, Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Tuesday, Reuters informs, quoting Ria Novosti. The Summit, to be held on April 2-4 is the second to host the Russian President.

NATO announced on January 23 that it officially invited President Putin to join the Summit and General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer declared that he personally invited Vladimir Putin. Russian first deputy PM Sergey Ivanov implied in a recent speech in Munich that Vladimir Putin might attend the NATO Summit.

Lavrov declared that Putin accepted to join the NATO Summit in an attempt to show that Russia was open to discussions on any issue. Currently Russia is in a very tense relation with NATO forces, on various international issues including Kosovo.