Chernomyrdin, Gore meet in Washington, schedule summit

OMRI Daily Digest

WASHINGTON - Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and U.S. Vice-President Al Gore opened the eighth session of the bilateral economic cooperation commission, which they co-chair, in Washington on February 6, Russian and Western agencies reported.

Eighteen economic agreements were signed at the meeting of the U.S.-Russian Joint Commission on Economic and Technological Cooperation on February 8. They included a joint declaration on regional initiatives in Russia, which is expected to boost foreign investment in Russia's regions.

Mr. Chernomyrdin earlier met with House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, to whom he re-emphasized Moscow's opposition to NATO expansion.

According to ITAR-TASS, Prime Minister Chernomyrdin added that Russia could accept expansion if Moscow were admitted to the NATO council as its 17th full member and the alliance transformed itself into a "political organization."

On February 7, Vice-President Gore and Prime Minister Chernomyrdin attended the ceremonial signing of a joint-venture deal between the U.S. oil firm ARCO and Russia's LUKoil. LUKoil will own 54 percent of the venture and ARCO, 46 percent.

Russian Deputy Finance Minister Mikhail Kasianov and U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers on February 8 signed an agreement to spread the repayment of Russia's $2.3 billion debt to the U.S. over 25 years.

Aside from commission sessions, Mr. Chernomyrdin also discussed the timing and location of a planned U.S.-Russia summit.

Vice-President Gore announced that President Bill Clinton will meet Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki on March 20-21. The fact that the venue has been moved from the U.S. to Finland suggests that the Russian president is not healthy enough to make the long flight to North America.

Vice-President Gore also said the U.S. is ready to begin START III talks and that preliminary discussions are already under way, Agence France Presse reported. The Congress has ratified START II, but the Russian State Duma has not.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 16, 1997, No. 7, Vol. LXV

| Home Page |