President of Russia to meet FRG Chancellor in Norway

On Tuesday, November 12th, president of Russia Vladimir Putin will meet FRG Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder in Oslo. It was earlier planned that en route to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit which was held in Mexico Vladimir Putin would meet Schroeder in Berlin but this meeting did not take place because of the tragic events in Moscow.

According to deputy head of the Kremlin administration Sergei Prikhodko, after it became known that both Vladimir Putin and Gerhardt Schroeder would stay in Oslo at the same time an accord on holding a meeting was reached. The two leaders will converse before the start of Vladimir Putin's working visit to Norway.

During the conversation Vladimir Putin and Gerhardt Schroeder will discuss issues related to Russian-German relations, in particular, the question of establishing a Consortium for managing the gas-transportation system of Ukraine. The situation in the international arena will be touched upon as well. The two leaders will consider the problems of Middle East settlement, the situation around Iraq, and Russia-NATO relations.

Sergei Prikhodko recalled that on an agreement between the Ministers of Culture of Russia and Germany the year 2003 was declared the Year of Russian Culture in Germany. In this connection the Kremlin representative said Vladimir Putin was likely to participate in the events to be held on the occasion of this event in Berlin in early 2003.