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Germany, Russia leaders meet :
Talks on gas supplies, financial crisis
GERMANY: German Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday hosts
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev for talks dominated by efforts to
avoid a new spat over gas supplies to Europe and the global financial
crisis.
The two leaders will hold private talks at a picturesque castle near
the southern city of Munich before being joined by key members of both
governments, including the ministers for the interior, environment and
economy, Berlin said.
“The talks will encompass the most important foreign policy
questions, such as Iran, North Korea’s nuclear programme, the Middle
East peace process, as well as economic topics, such as the financial
crisis and the read-out from the G8 meeting,” Merkel’s spokesman, Ulrich
Wilhelm, said on Monday.
“They will discuss a wide range of issues, including on security, gas
and economic issues,” added a Kremlin official on condition of
anonymity.
In addition, the two governments are poised to ink a raft of economic
partnership deals, including a 500-million-dollar (357-million-euro)
credit agreement, Medvedev’s foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko said
on Wednesday.
Among the documents to be signed or adopted will be a joint
declaration on energy cooperation and an agreement between Russian
Railways and Siemens to establish a joint venture to produce
locomotives. Nevertheless, with Germany easily Europe’s biggest customer
for Russian gas, the topic of supplies will likely top the agenda,
analysts said, with Merkel seeking assurances that the gas crisis in
January does not reoccur. Russian supplies to much of Europe were cut
off as part of a payment dispute between Moscow and Ukraine, which had a
brutal effect on Germany during a bitterly cold winter.
Timofei Bordachev, director of the Centre for Comprehensive European
and International Studies in Moscow, said the issue of shoring up
Ukraine as a transit country for Russian gas would certainly feature in
the talks.
“Russia and Germany understand each other here, both want to
reinforce Ukraine as a reliable transit country for gas deliveries to
Europe,” he told AFP.
Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert with the German Council on Foreign
Relations, said: “We expect new problems coming up, so we will
definitely see gas coming up as an issue.” Munich, Thursday, AFP |
