Moscow And Tripoli Are Preparing A Russian-Lybian Summit

Russia's foreign minister Igor Ivanov said that Moscow and Tripoli were busy preparing a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Muammar Qadhafi, the leaders of Russia and Lybia. Ivanov said this after his talks in Moscow with his Lybian counterpart Abd Al-Rahman Shalgam held Tuesday. He noted, however, that the timeframe and the place for holding this summit "will be agreed upon later." According to Igor Ivanov, the forthcoming summit has been put on the agenda of bilateral talks. In his opinion, an upsurge in Russian-Lybian trade and economic relations is expected in Moscow next year. "We have a favourable base for expanding our interaction, primarily in the trade and economic sphere," he said. In turn, Abd Al-Rahman Shalgam, who holds the post of secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, noted that relations between our two countries were at a high level. Lybia is interested in Russian technologies, he said, and pointed to such possible spheres of the countries' interaction as the gas and energy sectors. Abd Al-Rahman Shalgam also said that during his present Moscow visit the sides should reach an agreement on a Russian company's participation in building one of the largest power plants on the African continent. There are a number of other projects in the gas sphere, he said.