16/7 Tass 340a
BERLIN, July 16 (Itar-Tass) —— About a dozen documents are prepared for signing over the upcoming on Tuesday 13th round of the Russian-German interstate consultations, which involve Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev.
The German side will include nine ministers. Ministers of foreign affairs, the economy and finances are among those.
The documents will include agreements on economic relations, on environmental issues, and ministerial agreements. The sides will discuss a wide range of domestic and international matters. They will also discuss Russia’s upcoming elections to the State Duma and the presidential election and presence of observers there.
The organisation of the Year of Germany in Russia and the Year of Russia in Germany in 2012-2013 will be another topic on the agenda.
Parallel to the interstate consultations, there will be the civil Petersburg Forum, which, as Merkel said, is an organisation “favouring development of a dialogue between civil societies,” a governmental source said.
The participants in the consultations will discuss the Partnership for Modernisation programme which is of mutual interest for the sides.
The economic topics will cover situation in the European Union, and the state of euro. Medvedev, in his turn, is expected to speak about the economic development of Russia.
International agenda will be devoted to situation in Northern Africa, Syria, in the Middle East, and Iran – with regard to that country’s nuclear programme and possible new sanctions to “have Tehran use diplomatic methods in settling the problem.”