The United States vowed on Monday to work with its international partners to assure that Russia receives membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO) as soon as possible, a White House official said on Monday.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama confirmed on October 1 that bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the organization are complete, which opens the way for Russia's membership.
"President Obama and President Medvedev made a strong commitment to each other earlier this year to work on a very fast timetable to resolve the outstanding issues between our countries," said Michael Froman, a deputy assistant to the U.S. president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs
"On a bilateral basis our major outstanding issues are now resolved and that's a very significant step forward toward Russia's WTO accession," he said.
White House officials have repeatedly said that the U.S. sees no obstacles to Russia joining the 153-member global trade body. Russia is yet to finalize talks with the European Union, although the country's chief WTO negotiator, Maxim Medvedkov, said they would be completed in a few weeks time.
"We will be working with Russia, with the EU and with the other members of the multilateral process to try and move this process forward toward their [Russia's] accession as early as possible," the U.S. official added.
WASHINGTON, November 1 (RIA Novosti)
