Russia Intends To Intensify Its Cooperation With Namibia In The Diamond Sphere

Russia intends to intensify its cooperation with Namibia in the diamond industry, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said while opening the negotiations with his Namibian colleague Theo-Ben Gurirab. According to him, cooperation in this sphere seems to be promising. Igor Ivanov pointed out that the successful work of the Russian company Alrosa in neighbouring Angola, from which the Russian delegation arrived the day before, "convincingly shows that this company could occupy a worthy place also at Namibia's diamond market." He also said that Moscow was satisfied that last year the Namibian side allotted to the Alrosa company two areas to conduct prospecting and expressed the hope that "this cooperation will continue to develop successfully." In the continuation of the diamond theme the Russian Foreign Minister said that Russia and Namibia were successfully cooperating within the framework of the so-called Kimberley process on conflict diamonds. "We would like our experts to continue coordinating their efforts for a just solution of this problem," pointed out the Russian minister. At these negotiations the Foreign Ministers also discussed cooperation between Moscow and Windhoek in the military-technological sphere. According to Igor Ivanov, Moscow intends "to give a serious impetus" to this cooperation. The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs believes that the sides should bring their trade and economic relations to the level of their present-day political cooperation. The inter-governmental commission can play an important role in this, in the opinion of the sides. Igor Ivanov expressed the hope that "the putting into operation of this commission will be an effective instrument for cooperation in implementing the existing agreements and will make it possible to coordinate the actions of different ministries and government departments for developing cooperation between the two countries."