Medvedev to receive Austrian President Fischer at Kremlin on Thursday
MOSCOW. May 19 (Interfax) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will meet with Austrian President Heinz Fischer at the Kremlin on Thursday.
Fischer is currently on a three-day visit to Russia.
"The Austrian leader's visit program also envisions meetings with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and participation in the opening of a Russian-Austrian business forum," the Kremlin press service told Interfax.
Fischer also plans to visit Tatarstan, it said.
Medvedev and Fischer are expected to focus their negotiations on cooperation between Russia and the European Union, prospects for cancelling visa regulations between Russia and EU countries, and Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The two presidents also plan to attach particular significance to trade-economic and investment cooperation, it said.
Russian-Austrian trade turnover reached $3.48 billion in 2010. Cumulative Austrian investments in the Russian economy amounted to $4.2 billion, including $2.4 billion of direct investments, as of the end of 2010, which makes Austria the 12th largest investor in Russia.
The Russian and Austrian leaders plan to sign a declaration on partnership for modernization, which should help bring bilateral interaction in the innovations sector to a qualitatively new level, the Kremlin press service said.
Medvedev and Fischer also plan to exchange opinions on a number of global and regional issues, among them relations between Russia and the EU and the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa.