Russia, Netherlands have common vision on Europe without division lines
Russia and the Netherlands displayed a common stance during the discussion of EU-Russia relations, Europe without division lines and a common security space, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told a news conference on Tuesday, summing up the results of his talks with the Netherlands’ Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
According to the Russian prime minister, the sides “confirmed the common ways of the achievement of the above-mentioned goals, including the further implementation of the roadmap, the signing of a new Russia-EU basic agreement, the reduction of visa formalities and their final abolition.
Touching upon economic cooperation, Zubkov said that the two countries have huge prospects for the development of economic cooperation.
Russia and the Netherlands are interested in the implementation of a package agreement between Russia’s gas giant Gazprom and the Dutch energy company Gasunie.
Under the document, Gasunie purchases a big stake in the Nord Stream project, while Gazprom becomes a participant in one of Europe’s largest energy projects, Zubkov said.
He explained that the matter is about the construction of a gas pipeline from the Netherlands to the United Kingdom with annual capacity of 20 billion cubic meters.
Zubkov pointed to the fruitful bilateral cooperation in trade, economy and investments.
The Netherlands is Russia’s second trade partner after Germany. The aggregate amount of investments from the Netherlands in Russia exceeded 39 billion U.S. dollars, including direct investments 35.3 billion U.S. dollars, which makes up 18 percent from all foreign investments in Russia’ s economy, Zubkov said.
“The Russian-Dutch Economic Cooperation Commission is an efficient instrument of our practical interaction,” he said, adding that the commission will convene for its next meeting in Moscow in the first half of the year.
Zubkov also indicated that earlier in the day the two countries signed a joint action program for 2008-2010.
In his opinion, the program will become the fundamental document in bilateral relations for this period of time.
The previous program of the kind, which was signed during the state visit of the Dutch president to Russia in November 2005, has been being implemented fruitfully, Zubkov said.
Russia and the Netherlands displayed a common stance during the discussion of EU-Russia relations, Europe without division lines and a common security space, Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told a news conference on Tuesday, summing up the results of his talks with the Netherlands’ Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.
