French President Nicolas Sarkozy's two-day visit to Moscow, starting from Tuesday, was expected to focus on economic ties in addition to international topics like arms control and Iraq, a senior Kremlin official said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will host his French counterpart, who is on his first trip to Moscow as president, with an informal dinner Tuesday and official talks in the Kremlin Wednesday, Russian media reported.
The two leaders will focus on joint investment projects, the RIA news agency quoted the presidential aide Sergei Prikhodko as saying.
"Large projects include the launch of Russian Soyuz booster rockets from the Kourou space center, the production of a Superjet 100 regional aircraft, projects to turn A320 and A321 passenger jets into cargo planes, and cooperation in the construction of highways and railways," the official said.
Russian-French trade increased 13.9 percent to 6.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of 2007 and the two states were also interested in nuclear energy cooperation, he said. Energy supplies account for a large portion of Russia's exports to France.
The two leaders will also discuss international issues such as the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, U.S. missile defense plans, the situation in the Middle East, Iraq, the Iranian nuclear program, and a Russia-EU summit to be held in Portugal later this month, he said.
Moscow threatened to pull out of the CFE arms control treaty after the United States launched plans to deploy anti-missile components in central Europe, alleging that most NATO members have not approve a ratified edition of the treaty.
On the Iranian nuclear issue, the two states also differ in views. France is in favor of tougher sanctions against Iran, which was alleged by the West to be developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, however Russia opposes a hardline stance against Tehran.
Source: Xinhua
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