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| Slovak president arrives in Russia on official visit |
| Moskva, 08.11.2006 |
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| MOSCOW, November 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic arrived in Moscow on a five-day official visit on Monday.
During the visit, Gasparovic will meet with his Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 7, a Kremlin official told Itar-Tass.
"I wish to talk with the Russian president not only about trade and economic issues, but also about the whole complex of relations between Russia and the EU, and Slovakia in particular," he underlined.
“The talks between Putin and Gasparovic will focus on further development of trade and economic ties,” the Kremlin official said.
In his words, bilateral trade in the first eight months of 2006 increased by 58.5 percent from the same period of 2005 and reached 3.7 billion dollars, compared to 3.9 billion dollars in the whole of 2005.
“During the visit a possible conclusion of new long-term contracts for the supply and transit of Russian energy resources will be discussed,” the Kremlin official said, noting that Moscow attached great significance to energy cooperation.
“Slovakia is a strategic European state for the transit of Russian natural gas,” he said.
Big joint infrastructure projects are also on the visit’s agenda. Several Russian organisations, particularly Atomstroiexport and Tekhnomashexport, will get involved in the modernisation of the Slovak nuclear power plants in Mochovce, Jaslovske Bohunice, the Vojany thermal power plant, and in the construction of hydropower plants, electric power plants, and power lines.
The Slovak leader is also expected to visit Omsk, where he will attend the opening ceremony for the Russian-Slovak tyre production joint venture “Matador-Omskshina”, and take a trip to Krasnoyarsk to attend a business forum.
The Slovak president will be accompanied by a large delegation of the republic's business circles. Entrepreneurs are interested in establishing direct contacts with Russian colleagues.
“Bilateral cooperation in high-tech industries has good prospects,” the Kremlin official said. “The construction of an international laser centre and a cyclotron centre in Bratislava is nearing completion through joint efforts, and in military-technical cooperation MiG-29 fighter planes, which the Slovak Air Force is armed with, are being upgraded,” he added.
“During the talks the presidents of the two countries are also expected to discuss topical issues on the international agenda, particularly Slovakia’s non-permanent membership in the U.N. Security Council in 2006-2007,” the Kremlin official said.
The leaders “will exchange views on prospects for the development of relations between Russia and the European Union and NATO, and for stabilisation in crisis-ridden regions,” he added.
During the visit of the Slovak president, an intergovernmental agreement ensuring mutual interests in the use and allocation of intellectual property rights and an interdepartmental agreement on cooperation in education are planned to be signed, the Russian presidential administration official said.
Gasparovic support Russia's accession to the European Union. “The European Union will fulfill its task and vindicate its name, when all European states join it, Russia included, of course,” Gasparovic told Itar-Tass.
Russia is an integral and one of the most important parts of the European continent that “old countries of Europe will increasingly need,” the Slovak leader noted.
“The inclusion in the organisation of all European countries will ensure its healthy competition with other regional organisations and the United States. The European Union will attain a new political and economic quality,” he said.
Gasparovic also called for simplifying the visa regime between Russia and the EU. “Contacts between citizens are the basis for developing good relations between the states. It is well understood in Bratislava, Moscow, and Brussels, the centre of the European Union, of which Slovakia is an integral part,” the president said.
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Address : Euro-Brew Ltd., Hlboká 22, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia
Tel. : +421 33 53 418 53, Fax : +421 33 53 418 52, E-mail : info@eurobrew.sk |
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