09 June 2004 19:38
Serbia-Montenegro favours closer economic ties with Russia
Moscow, 9 June: Foreign Minister of Serbia-Montenegro Vuk Draskovic has spoken in favour of Russia's involvement
in privatizing facilities in the energy, banking and tourist sectors of Serbia-Montenegro. He said this at a meeting
with Russian Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov.
"We would like to develop very urgently cooperation with Russia in the construction of a gas and oil
pipelines," Draskovic said. "It is necessary to expand Russia's involvement in privatizing facilities in
the energy, banking and tourist sectors," the minister said. He stressed that Russia should be granted "equal
conditions which are enjoyed by Western companies". "This should be done very quickly," the minister
said. [Passage omitted]
Draskovic said the two countries should coordinate cooperation at the level of bilateral relations which have taken
several centuries to develop. "Russia and Serbia-Montenegro must develop their economic, political, humanitarian
and other relations and coordinate them with the level of relations which exist between our peoples," Draskovic
said. The minister noted that these relations "are older than Russia and Serbia-Montenegro, and they never depended
upon any regimes".
[ITAR-TASS news agency] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
