Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 31, 2004
French president to visit Russia on April 3
A working visit to Russia by French President Jacques Chirac scheduled for the beginning of April will begin on April 3, the press service of the Russian president reported on Tuesday.
A working visit to Russia by French President Jacques Chirac scheduled for the beginning of April will begin on April 3, the press service of the Russian president reported on Tuesday.
The agenda of the coming meeting with the French president includes many problems to discuss, Putin told journalists in Sochi on March 28.
France, Russia has very interesting projects to discuss in the field of high technologies, where Russia gained ground, Putin said. Russia claims to be a leader in some fields of cooperation, such as space and military aircraft research, Putin said.
One of the joint projects is a military plane to be built in the framework of a joint project - the first one with such a big western country as France, Putin said.
He praised progress in the development of cooperation in the field of space exploration. We are grateful to EU countries- France, Italy, Germany for support to Russia��s participation in space launchings from Kourou cosmodrome. These countries have provided the necessary resources for the realisation of the project, Putin said.
At a meeting with Black Sea fleet commander Vladimir Masorin on Saturday the president was informed about plans of joint Russo- French naval exercises.