POLAND: Russia and Poland want to focus on energy and trade

Record ID: 805396

  • Title: POLAND: Russia and Poland want to focus on energy and trade
  • Date: 7th December 2010
  • Summary: MEDVEDEV MARCHING ALONG WITH SOLDIERS CARRYING WREATH MEDVEDEV SOLDIERS LAYING WREATH AT TOMB OF UNKNOWN SOLDIER WREATH MEDVEDEV AT WREATH MEDVEDEV SALUTES, LEAVES
  • Embargoed: 22nd December 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Poland, Poland
  • Country: Poland
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAD6IIY5TDYFGO78NY7AZV5CUDJ
  • Story Text: Russia wants to take part in the privatisation of Polish firms including refiner Lotos, its president said on Monday (December 6) during a visit designed to highlight burgeoning economic ties and to draw a line under old disputes.
    Dmitry Medvedev, on a trip rich in symbolism, also pledged full cooperation with Poland in establishing the causes of a plane crash in Russia that killed the Polish president, and he reaffirmed Moscow's wish to work with NATO on missile defence.
    "You mentioned an interest of Russian companies in investment in Poland, there is such interest. I told this to the President (Komorowski). This includes some energy companies' interest in the privatisation of Lotos." Medvedev told a joint news conference with Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski.
    Earlier, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told reporters in Warsaw that Rosneft and Gazprom's oil arm Gazpromneft among other Russian companies, are eyeing the possibility to acquire a stake in Lotos.
    The Polish government has put up for sale a controlling 53 percent stake in Lotos and is awaiting offers until early 2011.
    Medvedev's comments reflected a strong desire in both Moscow and Warsaw to refocus relations on energy and trade as they make progress in overcoming disputes about history and defence.
    Bilateral trade was 10 billion dollars in the first six months of 2010, or 1.5 times more than in the same period in 2009. Russia's gas and oil exports still account for the lion's share of that, but Moscow increasingly sees Poland, the only European Union member state to avoid recession last year, as an important trade partner in other areas.
    Medvedev, making the first visit by a Russian president to the Polish capital in eight years, signalled that some Russian firms may be interested in listing on the Warsaw bourse and he also emphasised the role of small and medium-sized businesses.
    Commenting on the probe into the April 10 plane crash that killed 96 people, mostly top Polish officials, Medvedev told Komorowski that Russia was committed to full transparency.
    "This is a very tragic page in Polish history and I can tell you it is also a tragic page in the Russian nation's history. And that is why we need to do everything in order for the results of the investigation to be objective, truthful and accessible to all interested sides." Medvedev said.
    Some Poles, mostly supporters of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party led by Kaczynski's twin brother Jaroslaw, say Moscow and Poland's own centrist government share blame for the crash and accuse them of trying to cover up the truth.
    Medvedev's visit to Warsaw comes amid a wider "reset" of relations between Russia and the West. Last month, he and NATO leaders, including from Poland, agreed to cooperate on missile defence, an issue long viewed by Moscow with deep distrust.
    "I am sure that we are beginning not only a new chapter in Polish-Russian relations, but also a good chapter in Polish-Russian relations in this book that we have been writing for over one thousand years," Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski said after meeting Medvedev.
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