Putin to Discuss With Visiting Chirac Bilateral Ties, World AffairsRussian President Vladimir Putin arrived in St. Petersburg, the second largest city of Russia, on Sunday to meet French President Jacques Chirac who arrived there on the same day for a three-day official visit.The two presidents will discuss Russian-French relations and some international issues. They will also visit the philharmonic society. In addition, Chirac and his wife will visit the Hermitage to see an exhibition of French artists and meet professors and teachers of the Polar Academy. On Sunday evening, the two presidents will fly to Moscow and their official talks will be held on Monday. Chirac will also meet Putin's predecessor Boris Yeltsin. Chirac will fly to Samara, the last leg of his Russian tour, on Wednesday. He will visit a plant of the Starsem joint venture, which launches satellites by Soyuz rocket-boosters, and open an office of the Alliance Franchise Association of Compatriots before leaving for Paris. Since Putin's visit to France last October, Russian-French ties have become warmer. Observers here say that Chirac's visit will further boost bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields, especially on the issue of preserving international strategic balance. Russian and French diplomats say that Putin and Chirac have established a good contact during their previous meetings in Okinawa, Paris and Stockholm. The two countries are adherent to the idea of the multi-polar world and the universal security. That may be confirmed by a joint statement on the strategic stability, Itar-Tass news agency cited top Russian experts on international issues as saying Sunday. Moscow and Paris are interested in the preservation of the 1972 ABM treaty, because the U.S. development and deployment of a national missile defense system (NMD) may depreciate the Russian and French nuclear potential. The two presidents will also focus on the efforts of their countries to build new Europe. That is a priority of the Moscow foreign policy, the experts said. A common economic space on the European continent was discussed at the Russia-European Union summit in Moscow earlier this year and the debates might go on. The Russia-France trade volume went up 26 percent in 2000 to 3. 1 billion U.S. dollars. France ranks the eighth among foreign investors in Russia with a total investments of 230 million dollars. Russia and France have planned and started to implement a series of joint projects in the fields of natural resources, energy, aviation and space exploration. |
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