Putin to attend World Cup closing ceremony in Rio - Kremlin aide
MOSCOW. July 10 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the closing ceremony of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil and take up the baton of the 2018 World Cup in Russia in Rio de Janeiro on June 13.
Putin will pay an official visit to Brazil, which he has not been to since 2004, on July 13-16.
"Rio de Janeiro will host the closing ceremony of the World Cup on July 13, during which a meeting between Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, FIFA President Joseph Blatter, and Russian President Vladimir Putin will take place. Russia will take up the baton from Brazil at this meeting," Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov told journalists in the run up to Putin's tour of a number of Latin American countries on Thursday.
"As a working plan, we expect to have several bilateral meetings with the country leaders attending the final. The particular individuals have not yet been determined, but I can presume that Germany's advance to the final will entail some nuances, obviously," he said.
Putin might also have stand-up meetings with other country leaders as well, he said.
Sports will be given special attention during Putin's trip to Brazil, Ushakov said. "Russia is to host the World Football Championship in 2018, in preparations for which the experience of the Brazilian World Cup will be taken into account. Rio de Janeiro will be the city hosting the next Olympic Games in 2016, and Krasnoyarsk and Brasilia will be the capitals of the winter and summer universiades in 2019," Ushakov said.
The key event of Putin's visit to Brazil should be his bilateral talks with President Rousseff scheduled for July 14 in Brasilia, he said.
The last time the two leaders met was during a G20 summit in St. Petersburg in September 2013.
"The agenda of the Russian-Brazilian top level negotiations embraces the entire range of issues pertaining to bilateral and international cooperation. International issues will be touched upon during the talks, including issues concerning coordination of approaches within the UN, BRICS, G20, WTO, and between regional integration associations," Ushakov said.
A number of intergovernmental, interagency, and commercial agreements intended to stimulate interaction in various sectors, i.e. energy, healthcare, transport, agriculture, customs regulation, culture, and education, have been prepared for signature, Ushakov said.
"Military-technological cooperation is an issue that will be discussed. Documents are being prepared for signing in Brazil," he added.
The presidents will exchange opinions on "how to stimulate growth in mutual trade and encourage mutual investment flows," he said.
Brazil is Russia's largest trade partner in Latin America. Trade between the two countries has tripled over the past 10 years, although it went down by 3.3% to $5.5 billion in 2013 amid instability in the world economy.
"Russia and Brazil are interacting in the space exploration sector. One ground data acquisition system has been operating on the territory of the University of Brasilia since 2013. Two more stations, a laser and a non-query one, should be put into operation by the time of Putin's visit to Brazil," he said.
