Russia 110601 Basic Political Developments

China, Russia to boost energy cooperation

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-06/01/c_13905342.htm
2011-06-01 14:17:57

BEIJING, June 1 (Xinhuanet) -- China and Russia have agreed to further boost energy cooperation across a variety of fields. Vice Premier Wang Qishan reached the concensus with his Russian counterpart Igor Sechin at the seventh round of the Sino-Russian energy negotiators' meeting in Moscow.

Wang said that energy cooperation is an important component of the strategic partnership of coordination between the two countries. He added that China is willing to work with Russia to further promote cooperation in the oil, gas, coal, nuclear and renewable energy sectors.

For his part, Sechin said that he had reached consensus with the Chinese Vice Premier on a wide range of issues. He expressed the hope that bilateral energy cooperation would continue delivering mutual benefits in the future.

 (Source: CNTV.cn)

China Oil Debt Partially Paid

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/china-oil-debt-partially-paid/437928.html
01 June 2011

Bloomberg

China has paid about three-fourths of a debt owed to Russian state-controlled companies for oil deliveries, said Igor Dyomin, a spokesman for Transneft.

Rosneft received $127 million and Transneft got $78 million from China this week, Dyomin said by phone. China paid less than the agreed price for oil shipments that started this year via a spur from the East Siberia-Pacific Ocean pipeline, he said.

In 2009, Rosneft and Transneft agreed to start shipping an annual 15 million metric tons of oil, in exchange for $25 billion in loans.

03:46 01/06/2011ALL NEWS

Zubkov in Canada to discuss bilateral econ, trade interaction.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/154965.html

1/6 Tass 4

OTTAWA, June 1 (Itar-Tass) — Russia's First Vice-Premier Viktor Zubkov, during an official visit to Canada, is to attend a session of the Canada -Russia Business Council (CRBC) opening here on Wednesday.

Zubkov is to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Senate Speaker Noel Kinsella, and hold talks with Canadian International Trade Minister Edward Fast, who co-chairs the Intergovernmental Economic Commission (IEC) on the Canadian side, and Gerry Ritz, Canadian Minister of Agriculture.

A staff member of the secretariat of the Russian First Vice-Premier has pointed out that in recent years Russia-Canada trade-and-economic cooperation has been developing successively and dynamically enough. The business circles of the two countries manifest mounting interest in giving greater scope to cooperation, and implement large-scale joint projects and deals, and jointly plan new ones. These are, specifically, accords about co-development of gold ore deposits and the mining of uranium, Olympic projects, cooperation in developing nuclear technologies, the setting up of automobile production and cooperation in the agri-industrial sector.

In 2010, bilateral trade turnover ran at $2,500 million, which was almost $800 million more than in 2009. A steady growth trend also kept on in the first quarter of this year: trade turnover grew by 30 percent as compared with the corresponding period of last year -- from $376.9 millin to 492.9 million.

Expert estimate is that Canadian capital investments in Russian assets amounted to $1,500 million and Russian ones in Canada ran at $7,000 million.

Nevertheless, there is a substantial untapped potential in economic interaction between Russia and Canada. The present session of the IEC, as well as a meeting of the Business Council and the Forum on the development of cooperation in the field of livestock-raising must become a significant step along the lines of using it in full.

Participants in these meetings will consider the state of and prospects for trade-and-economic cooperation between the two countries, with special attention to be devoted to joint projects in the fields of energy, science, technologies, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, construction, space research, the development of the Arctic and the North, and interaction between Russian and Canadian companies under the projects for Sochi-2014 and 2018 World Soccer Cup Finals.

A separate subject of discussion will be how to deepen interregional contacts between Russia and Canada. A detailed discussion of the subject will be continued during a meeting between Viktor Zubkov and Jean Charest, Premier of the Quebec Province.

As a result of the visit, the sides are to sign a package of documents. Apart from a Final Joint Statement on the results of the IEC session, the sides are planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on main matters of cooperation between the Union of Aircraft Manufacturers of Russia and the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Foundation for the promotion of the development of housing construction and the Canada Mortgage and Construction Corporation, as well as a Joint Statement on cooperation in the fields of science, technology, and innovations.

RT News line, June 1

Russia, NATO to hold first joint aerial anti-terror drill

http://rt.com/politics/news-line/2011-06-01/#id11253
11:06

Russia and NATO have agreed to hold their first joint military drill aimed at preventing terrorist strikes involving civilian aircraft, such as the September 11, 2001 attack, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee of Russia reports. The drill, entitled Watchful Sky 2011, will be held in early June, and will involve Russian and NATO fighter jets. The participants will be drilling the urgent exchange of information in case of a terrorist act, and the joint interception of suspicious aircraft.

Georgia-Russia WTO talks postponed

http://www.news.az/articles/georgia/37490

Wed 01 June 2011 07:28 GMT | 9:28 Local Time

Switzerland has delayed the latest round of Russian-Georgian negotiations on Russia's entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The talks, scheduled for 2 June, have been postponed indefinitely at the request of the Swiss side, Civil Georgia reported.

The Georgian prime minister's spokesman, Nikoloz Mchedlishvili, said the postponement was because of technical issues.

He said that the Russian Federation's WTO accession had been raised by Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey during her visit to Georgia two days ago.

The last round of Swiss-mediated talks between the two countries on the terms for Russia's WTO entry were held in Switzerland on 29 April.

Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nino Kalandadze commented afterwards that the talks had been successful, but said she could not reveal the exact issues under discussion.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, for his part, that Georgia's objections to Russia's WTO entry were political rather than connected with trade.

Russia banned Georgian wine, mineral water and other goods from its market in 2006, citing quality concerns. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili retorted that the ban constituted economic blackmail.

After the August 2008 war over Georgia's breakaway territory of South Ossetia, Georgia severed diplomatic relations with Russia while Moscow responded in kind.

As a member of the WTO, Georgia is in practice able to veto Russia's accession.

News.Az

12:00 01/06/2011ALL NEWS

Russia-Georgia WTO talks postponed – Georgia’s government.

http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c154/155215.html

1/6 Tass 487a

TBILISI, June 1 (Itar-Tass) — The next round of talks between Georgia and Russia on the latter’s accession to the World Trade Organization scheduled for June 2 was postponed, the press service of the Georgian government said.

The talks “were put off at the request of Switzerland,” the source said adding that no exact day for the new round has been announced so far.

Switzerland serves a mediator in the talks between Russia and Georgia after they broke diplomatic relations in September 2008.

Last month Georgia’s Foreign Ministry announced that “blocking Russia’s WTO accession is not an end in itself for Georgia.”

The previous round of talks of the Russian-Georgian talks took place in Bern in late April.