04 February 2005

UPDATE: 11.00-12.30          (MSK)     16.00-19.30

Russia is repaying its foreign debt ahead of schedule and has asked the World Bank to help ...   Relations between Russia and China are an example of a genuine strategic partnership ...   Israel is to free 900 Palestinian detainees ahead of Isreali-Palestinian summit ...   Moscow welcomes the resumption of top-level Israeli-Palestinian talks and hopes they will help establish a lasting peace in the Middle East...   84 Iraqi prisoners were released in the northern city of Mosul ...   Russia welcomes the decision by the Council of EU foreign ministers to suspend the political and diplomatic sanctions against Cuba ...   Beijing called on Washington not to hinder the lifting of the EU embargo on arms delivery to China ...   Japanese government was anxious to improve ties with Russia in different areas ...   Mikhail Saakashvili will give day-to-day guidance to the cabinet of ministers for the period remaining till the appointment of a new premier ...   Ukrainian MPs have put off until Friday planned nomination of Yuliya Timoshenko as the country's new Prime Minister ...   The Reuters news agency on Friday reported the loss of a Boeing 737 passenger plans carrying over a hundred people ...

President Vladimir Putin believes that the World Bank has contributed heavily to introducing free market relations in Russia. The president made these remarks when meeting in Moscow on Thursday with World Bank President James Wolfenssogn. Putin said that even though Russia no longer needed financial help from the world' s leading moneylenders, it would still appreciate the World Bank' s financing certain social projects and information technology upgrades. The President said that earlier this week Russia had paid off ahead of schedule its outstanding debt to the IMF and would soon do the same with the Paris Club of creditor nations with some helpful mediation from the World Bank. Mr. Wolfenssohn congratulated Putin on Russia's economic gains of the past few years and said he was glad to have a rich country like Russia among his bank' s clients.

 

Relations between Russia and China are an example of a genuine strategic partnership. Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov sounded this upbeat note when meeting in Moscow on Thursday with the visiting member of China's governing State Council Tan Zrhasyan. The sides discussed wider trade and other economic cooperation between two countries and agreed to hold the next, 10th meeting between the Russian and Chinese Prime Ministers in Beijing in the fall or winter of this year. On Wednesday Tan Zhasyan had a meeting with President Vladimir Putin after which the sides said they were setting in motion a mechanism of security boosting consultations between the two neighboring nations.

 

Israel has approved a plan to free 9 hundreds of jailed Palestinians in what is seen as a goodwill gesture ahead of next week's Middle East summit, Israeli cabinet ministers meeting on Thursday also agreed to a gradual troop withdrawal from five West Bank cities over two-week intervals. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are expected to ink an official truce when they meet in Egypt on the eighth of this month.

 

Moscow welcomes the resumption of top-level Israeli-Palestinian talks and hopes they will help establish a lasting peace in the Middle East. Speaking in Moscow on Thursday Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko underscored the importance of Egyptian and Jordanian participation in the talks. Russia holds out for the earliest possible resumption of the Mideast peace process and an unwavering Israeli and Palestinian adherence to the provisions of the road map peace plan, the diplomat said.

 

84 Iraqi prisoners were released in the northern city of Mosul on Thursday after the authorities determined their non-involvement in terrorist attacks. Also on Thursday two civilians were killed and six others wounded by insurgent fire across the city and two US troops died in a shootout with the extremists in Anbar province west of Baghdad.

 

Russia welcomes the decision by the Council of EU foreign ministers to suspend the political and diplomatic sanctions against Cuba. In a statement on Thursday the ministry of foreign affairs of Russia was hopeful that the decision will promote a full re-establishment of ties between the EU and Havana as well as help solve the difficult situation around Cuba. On the same day the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov and the Cuban Ambassador to Russia, Gorge Marti Martines discussed bilateral cooperation. The EU froze relations with Cuba in June 2003 in protest against the trial of opposition officials.

 

Beijing on Thursday called on Washington not to hinder the lifting of the EU embargo on arms delivery to China imposed in 1989 after the events in Tyananmen Square. A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing has said that the sanctions were harming the development of a further strategic partnership between China and a united Europe. At the same time the official declared that the lifting of the arms embargo will not significantly increase China's arms import. France, Germany, Britain and Italy have urged a speedy lifting of the embargo.

 

Russia and Japan have a similar interest in cooperating in the economic, trade, investment, the war on terror and in several other areas. That much has been said by a senior official of the foreign ministry of Japan, commenting on Wednesday Tokyo's meeting of the Council of wisemen being co-chaired by the mayor of Moscow, Yur Luzhkov and the former prime minister of Japan, Yosiro Mori. The Japanese diplomat urged the press not to focus attention only on the differences between Moscow and Tokyo over border disagreement. He stressed that the Japanese government was anxious to improve ties with Russia in different areas.

 

In view of the death of Primes Minister Zurab Zhvaniya, Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili will give day-to-day guidance to the cabinet of ministers for the period remaining till the appointment of a new premier. This is what he said in Tbilisi on February 3rd. Prime Minister Zurab Zhvaniya found dead last night. According to preliminary information, the reason of his death was carbon monoxide poisoning.

 

Acting on request from President Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian MPs have put off until Friday their planned nomination of Yuliya Timoshenko as the country's new Prime Minister. According to deputy parliamentary speaker Adam Martynyuk President Yushchenko is still in talks as to the lineup of his new Cabinet and is expected to name his candidate for Prime Minister at 10 am on Friday. After the Prime Minister has been approved, the MPs will be presented with the full list of Cabinet ministers. The new Premier will then take the floor unveiling the new government' s economic program.

 

The Reuters news agency on Friday reported the loss of a Boeing 737 passenger plans carrying over a hundred people. The plane belonging to a private line-Kam Air, on Thursday left the town of Herat, western Afghanistan but the Kabul airport authorities refused to allow the plane to land due to poor weather conditions. According to some accounts, the crew then headed for the Pakistani town of Peshavar where the plane was allowed to land but it failed to arrive. All flights from the Kabul airport were cancelled due to heavy snowfall which began the previous day's evening.

 
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