Europe Favors Russia's Soonest Membership In WTO

The governments of Italy, Germany and Great Britain made suggested an initiative to speed up the process of Russia joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). A relative announcement was made by the Foreign Minister of Italy at the fourth session of the Russian-Italian Economic, Currency and Financial Collaboration Council today. According to him, these countries will make a request to the Council of Europe's Commission in the near future, to help Russia in this process. Deputy Premier of the Russian Federation, Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin was quoted as saying that Russia was suggested to elaborate on a detailed plan of its entering the WTO. Russian government officials reported that a proposal was made to Russia to think of the best date for entering the World Trade Organization. In this situation, Russia intends to intensify the process of conducting currency regulations and customs reforms, Kudrin added.