Next US-Russian Energy Summit to Be Held in Russia

The next US-Russian energy summit is to be held in Russia. Russian Energy Minister Igor Yusufov announced this yesterday when giving the closing speech at the first US-Russian energy summit in Houston. 'The current meeting is the first, but by no means the last on the path to creating a solid partnership between our two countries in the energy sector,' he stressed. 'We intend to widen our dialogue, bringing all new participants into it'. According to the minister, the next meeting will be as successful as the Houston summit.

Yusufov believes that the meeting in Houston is one of the most important events in US-Russian relations. Various extremely important questions were examined during the course of the summit, in particular the issue of ensuring strategic stability in the world energy market. According to the Russian minister, experts were unanimous in their opinion that Russian and American companies could work together to solve this problem by increasing shipments of energy resources, and taking part in joint projects both in Russia and in third countries.

One of the topics of the summit was the establishment in Russia of the necessary conditions, including legislation, for increasing investment activity by American companies. Yusufov stated that it was also essential to bring about conditions enabling Russian companies to work in the American market on an even footing.

The Russian Energy Minister also stressed that the participants of the meeting 'had managed to give a firm answer to the question of whether the US and Russia could jointly resolve the complex issues involved in ensuring a stable supply of energy resources in each country, or whether their paths were forking again.

The first US-Russian energy summit opened in Houston (the unofficial oil capital of the US) on October 1. The meeting was held under the aegis of the US and Russian economic and energy ministries. The summit was attended by US Trade Minister Donald Evans, Russian Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref, and Russian and US Energy Ministers Igor Yusufov and Spencer Abraham, as well as scientists, experts in the field of fuel and energy, the heads of energy companies, and representatives of leading Russian and US financial organisations.