Canadian Minister of International Cooperation visits Russia

Canadian Minister of International Cooperation Susan Whelan arrives in Moscow on Thursday. As the RIA Novosti correspondent was told in the Canadian Embassy in Moscow, the minister will stay in Russia from July 4th to 7th and will visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

In the Russian capital the minister will meet First Vice Prime Minister and co-chairman of the Russian-Canadian commission for economic, scientific and technological cooperation Viktor Khristenko and Health Minister Yury Shevchenko. Susan Whelan will also take part in a round-table conference organised by the Russian Association of Indigenous Small Ethnic Groups of the North.

In Saint Petersburg, Susan Whelan will meet with members of the Consortium on Consultations and Studies in the economic policy.

Touching upon the themes of the coming negotiations of Susan Whelan in Moscow, the Canadian Embassy pointed out that she would discuss the questions of cooperation in the sphere of reforms in the civil service and taxation. Apart from that, at her meeting with the Russian Health Minister Susan Whelan will speak about bilateral cooperation in combating AIDS.

The Embassy did not exclude that during this visit to Moscow by the Canadian Minister of International Cooperation new projects would be announced. However, it is not envisaged to sign any special documents or agreements.

In the federal government of her country Susan Whelan supervises the Canadian Agency for International Cooperation. This organisation has been acting on Russian territory for ten years now. Its programmes are meant to support the reforms in our country. In Russia, the agency deals with the promotion of trade contacts, the creation of favourable atmosphere in the Russian market economy for expanding trade and investment relations and with programmes in the sphere of public health and social protection. Apart from that, a number of the agency's projects deal with the indigenous small ethnic groups of the North.