Russian-British trade-and-investment committee holds its session in London

Yet another session of the Russian-British trade-and-investment committee opened in London today behind closed doors. This session is presided over by Deputy Russian Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Alexei Kudrin, as well as Great Britain's Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt.

Both sides will reportedly exchange information on the economic state of Great Britain and Russia, as well as specific governmental measures aiming to create favorable conditions for the development of bilateral trade-and-economic cooperation. They will discuss the activities of the department for guaranteeing British export loans in order to activate this agency's mechanism and potential as soon as possible for the sake of expanding bilateral trade still further. Four working groups, i.e. the energy-sector group, the construction-industry group, the aerospace-technology group and the hi-tech group, will sum up the results of their work during the session.

The committee's co-chairpersons would be expected to sign a joint declaration dealing with investment-cooperation issues, as well as a concluding statement. Moreover, they will coordinate the relevant deadlines for holding the committee's regular session in Moscow.