New WTO head to help Russia on its soonest accession to organisation

Supachai Panitchpakdi, a new Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), is willing to render all possible assistance to securing Russia's soonest accession to the WTO. At the same time, he believes that "it's still a long way to go" to resolve this issue.

Supachai Panitchpakdi made this statement on Monday at a press conference devoted to his taking office.

According to him, "we still have many issues to discuss with the Russian government." At the same time, he held out some hope that "Russia will become a participating member of our organisation as soon as possible" laying emphasis on the fact that the WTO leadership would do its best "to facilitate the solution to the problem at issue." He also stated that the latter "depends primarily on the Russian leadership and on other WTO member-states." According to RIA Novosti's diplomatic source in Geneva, the fact that the WTO has a new leader will not substantially affect the agenda of negotiations concerning Russia's accession to the WTO.