DPA: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions with Chancellor Angela Merkel during his two-day visit to Germany this weekend, the Kremlin announced Thursday.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Berlin/Moscow – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is expected to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions with Chancellor Angela Merkel during his two-day visit to Germany this weekend, the Kremlin announced Thursday.
Other topics include the situation in Afghanistan, disarmament, financial market regulation and Russian hopes to remove visa requirements for travel to the European Union.
Medvedev is to arrive late Friday and will stay at the government guesthouse in Meseberg, 60 kilometres north of Berlin. Merkel will join the president there for two days of talks.
Russia and other permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, China, France and Britain – plus Germany have been calling for sanctions against Iran over its rejection of international demands to suspend its uranium enrichment programme.
In doing so, Moscow has disregarded economic interests to distance itself from Teheran by pressing for such sanctions.
Merkel and Medvedev are also due to discuss economic cooperation between their countries in areas such as energy supply, engineering, aerospace and shipbuilding.
Russia has made it a priority to win visa-free access to the EU for its citizens, but this request has not been reciprocated by all EU member states – making the visa question one of the EU’s few points of leverage, and a bone of contention for Moscow.
The visa issue was a key topic during an EU-Russia summit in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don earlier this week.
Merkel and Medvedev’s meeting also comes ahead of a Group of 20 (G20) summit of leading economies in Toronto, Canada, later this month, where financial market regulation will be a central issue.
