Moscow pins great hopes on Russian President's visit to Chile

Moscow believes that the visit of the Russian president to Chile within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit scheduled for November 2004 will be an important event in bilateral relations. Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said this after his meeting with Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.

"We expect that during the APEC summit the Russian president will be able to visit Chile at the invitation of the Chilean side," Ivanov said. "This visit will be a very important event in bilateral relations," he added.

The minister pointed out that Moscow is satisfied with the development of the Russian-Chilean relations. "Today, our countries closely cooperate within the framework of the UN Security Council and other organisations," Ivanov pointed out. (Chile is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in 2003-2004.) "Our joint work showed that we have common stands on many important issues," the minister said.

At the same time, according to Ivanov, there are possibilities for the expansion of trade and economic cooperation, collaboration in the sphere of education and high technologies.