Putin on Russian-British co-operation in power engineering

When addressing Friday a Russian-British energy conference in London, Vladimir Putin referred to Britain as one of Russia's major partners in the energy industry, noting that bilateral co-operation in this field has reached the level of long-term strategic partnership.

He also laid emphasis on relevant big bilateral projects, especially between British Petroleum and Shell with Russian firms valued at the total of $17 billion.

Apart from this, continued the president, the development of new routes of fuels transportation can be another area of joint interests. He cited the construction of the North European gas-main to run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea across the territories of West Germany and the Netherlands with exit to the British coast.

"This project has been designed to ensure stable and reliable Russian gas deliveries to Great Britain and continental Europe and to create favourable conditions for effective Russian economic development as a whole," said President Putin. He quoted an English saying, "When there is a will, there is a way".

Dealing with recent investment deals with the participation of British companies, Putin said that "their implementation would make Britain the leader among foreign investors in the Russian economy."