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Financial Crisis, Energy To Dominate Russia-EU Summit

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  • Financial Crisis, Energy To Dominate Russia-EU Summit

    FINANCIAL CRISIS, ENERGY TO DOMINATE RUSSIA-EU SUMMIT

    Yerkir
    15:1318/05/2009

    MOSCOW, May 18 (RIA Novosti) - The global financial crisis as well as
    European energy and security issues will be the focus of the upcoming
    Russia-EU summit, Russia's EU envoy Vladimir Chizhov said on Monday.

    He said the Russian delegation at the meeting in the Russian Far East
    city of Khabarovsk, scheduled for May 21-22, will be led by President
    Dmitry Medvedev and include several cabinet ministers.

    The EU will be represented by Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech
    Republic, which holds the EU rotating presidency, European Commission
    President Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU foreign policy chief Javier
    Solana.

    "Cooperation and exchange not only of information, but also of
    experience in countering the crisis... would certainly be useful for
    both sides," Chizhov said.

    He said energy would be the second key topic at the summit, and that
    the Russian president had recently put forward an initiative on the
    establishment of a new legal framework for energy cooperation.

    "It is high time to think about working out a legal framework for
    international cooperation, better adapted to the present and the
    future," Chizhov said.

    Russia has signed but not ratified the European Energy Charter
    (1991), over concerns that the charter would allow the EU to demand
    the de-monopolization of Russian oil and gas pipelines. Russia-EU
    negotiations on the Energy Charter have been ongoing since January
    2000.

    Chizhov said the summit would also address the situation in the
    South Caucasus.

    "The situation in the Caucasus will evidently be discussed, primarily
    in respect to the consequences of the Georgian act of aggression
    against South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as other regional issues."

    The Armenia-Azerbaijan dispute over Nagorny Karabakh may also be
    discussed, he said.

    Chizhov said last month that a comprehensive Russia-EU partnership
    deal would be considered at the summit.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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