Crisis hampers 'reset' in Russia-US relations - foreign minister
RIA-Novosti
September 26, 2009
The "reset" in Russian-US relations could happen "more energetically" if economic cooperation were stepped up between the two countries, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. He was speaking at the annual meeting of the US-Russia Business Council in New York, as reported by Russian RIA Novosti news agency on 26 September.
"Unfortunately, statistics show that the potential we have in this field is not used in full," he was quoted as saying.
Speaking about the development of Russian-US trade, economic and investment ties, he noted that this was one of the priority areas of Russian foreign policy and called the USA Russia's long-term trade partner, Russian ITAR-TASS news agency reported on the same day.
Lavrov said: "Trade and investment should become a 'safety cushion' for the whole range of our cooperation, making it possible to weaken the pressure of the political situation on it," he was quoted as saying.
"Trade between the two countries, which increased by more than one-third to reach a record 36bn dollars last year, lost this one-third in the first six months of 2009," Lavrov said.
Lavrov also noted the negative trend in investment cooperation: investment has dropped by more than 1bn dollars, "although the USA still ranks number eight in the list of the largest investors in Russia".
He attributed this primarily to the global financial and economic crisis, adding that "some statistical figures had started improving thanks to measures taken by the G20".
Lavrov expressed his confidence that "the Russian and the US business communities have considerable opportunities to restore the positive trend in the bilateral economic partnership".
"One possible field to cooperate in may be the participation of the Russian and the US business communities in implementing large projects in the fields of transport, infrastructure and energy-saving," he added.
On investment, Lavrov said: "Russia is interested in diversifying investment cooperation as much as possible. We give great significance to prospects for developing scientific and technical cooperation with the USA in the field of the latest (technologies), including nanotechnologies".
