Putin, Fillon to co-chair cooperation commission meeting
MOSCOW. Dec 8 (Interfax) - The Russian and French prime ministers, Vladimir Putin and Francois Fillon, are due to co-chair the 15th meeting of the Russian-French intergovernmental commission on cooperation, the Russian government said.
The agenda for the meeting, to be held in Moscow, includes energy issues and issues of high-tech and other manufacturing. The meeting will also sum up the results of the Year of Russia in France and the Year of France in Russia in 2010, the government press service told Interfax.
Putin and Fillon will sign a final document that will mention agreements on cooperation in specific areas. There will also be a substantial set of agreements signed between the two governments and between individual Russian and French government agencies.
The press service said the year that has passed since the last commission meeting in Rambouillet, France, on November 27, 2009, had stood the test of the global financial crisis.
Bilateral trade grew in volume to $15.9 billion for the first nine months of 2010, a level that was a 37.4% increase compared to the same period last year, and is expected to reach pre-crisis annual levels by the end of the year.