Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov chaired a meeting of the Inter-Governmental Mixed Russian-Spanish Commission for Economic and Industrial Cooperation.
Addressing the meeting, the deputy prime minister said: “On November 24, Russia and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding on the conclusion of their negotiations about Russia’s WTO accession, and a document on the talks’ completion will be signed in Brussels during the Russia-EU summit on December 7,” and stressed that “Russia’s accession to the WTO remains, as before, our foreign economic policy priority.”
“In July this year,” the Deputy Prime Minister recalled, “we moved to the final phase in establishing the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. We formulated our joint negotiating position and started work discussing common WTO accession terms. During consultations held in the first half of 2010 the Russian, US and EU delegations finalised an action plan on Russia’s WTO accession that also envisages amending the documents in connection with the Customs Union’s establishment.”
Touching on Russian-Spanish cooperation, Mr Zhukov said that bilateral trade had increased 35% in January-September 2010 on the same period of 2009, reaching $4.9 billion. As of late June 2010, Russian investment in Spain topped $85 million. The total volume of Spanish investment in Russia reached $702.8 million for the same period.
“Although we must acknowledge that investment cooperation remains low between our two countries, the potential that both Russia and Spain possess, gives us grounds to hope for the continued development of fruitful cooperation,” Mr Zhukov noted.