MOSCOW, April 26 (RIA Novosti) - German leaders will be in Russia Wednesday for talks that are expected to focus on trade, energy, interaction within the G8 club of rich nations and the Iranian nuclear crisis.
President Vladimir Putin and Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet about 2,250 miles east of Moscow in the Siberian city of Tomsk as part of annual Russian-German intergovernmental consultations that have been held since 1998.
With bilateral trade rising year-on-year by 38.2% in 2005 to hit a new record of $32.9 billion, Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko said trade and economy would be in the spotlight of Russia's talks with its biggest trade partner.
"Trade and economic ties will take the central place [of the consultations] as they are the foundation of Russia-German partnership," he said.
The aide said German investment in the Russian economy had been growing steadily and that accrued investment had soared by 73.3% in 2005 on 2004 to reach $3 billion.
Against this background, Putin and Merkel, who is bringing nine Cabinet ministers with her, are expected to discuss joint projects in car-making, transportation, infrastructure, banking, and investment in Russia's new national welfare projects, which seek to develop key areas such as health and education.
German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the delegation would confirm an aspiration for broader strategic partnership agreed during Merkel's first visit to Moscow in January.
In a move befitting Tomsk's mineral wealth, Prikhodko also said the two leaders would focus on energy security, which Russia has declared one of the three main issues of its current G8 presidency.
In particular, he said the delegations would discuss the joint North European Gas Pipeline, which will pump Russian natural gas directly to Germany and the rest of western Europe across the Baltic Sea floor. Russian energy giant Gazprom is the project operator and is working with Germany's BASF and E.ON.
With Europe concerned about the reliability of Russian energy after Gazprom's exports were affected in a spat with Ukraine earlier this year and the energy giant's calls for greater access to European markets, Prikhodko said a meeting would be held to discuss the issue later this year.
"We will confirm our willingness to hold a bilateral energy forum in the fall,"
Prikhodko said, adding that the venue remained to be identified.
The aide also said the sides would discuss oil and gas supplies, and energy security in general in the context of the upcoming Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg in July.
"Russia's presidency in the G8 will be a separate issue along with close bilateral cooperation, given that Germany will take over the G8 leadership in 2007," Prikhodko said.
Energy security has been recently threatened by the controversial nuclear research program of oil-rich Iran, which has driven crude prices up to unprecedented $70 per barrel. Russia and Germany, which has been at the forefront of EU efforts to resolve the crisis, have both called on Iran to restore a moratorium on its programs.
"We strongly oppose the spread of the weapons of mass destructions, and we are against Iran having the technology that would make it a nuclear power," a Kremlin official said earlier, adding, however, that Russia was against a military solution.
