Italy, Russia seal 'strategic partnership' (Roundup)

Mar 14, 2007, 17:47 GMT

Bari, Italy - Italy and Russia sealed their 'strategic partnership' by signing a series of business deals, most notably on energy, during a bilateral summit held on Wednesday in the southern Italian city of Bari.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, meeting for the fourth time in just 10 months, also vowed to strengthen relations between the European Union and the Russian Federation and to work together for an international peace conference on Afghanistan.

'This summit is the best evidence of (the existence of) a strategic partnership between Italy and Russia,' Prodi said in a joint press conference with Putin.

Italy is Russia's third-largest trade partner, the second-largest EU partner after Germany, with trade between the two countries hitting a record 21 billion euros (28 billion dollars) in 2006.

The two leaders signed a total of 10 business deals involving the energy, banking, industrial and cultural sectors.

The most notable of these was an agreement between Italy's Eni and Gazprom allowing the Russian company to sell gas directly to Italian consumers. Italian electricity giant Enel will in return be allowed to take part in the privatization process of Russia's energy sector.

Other deals included a protocol of cooperation involving Italy's Finmeccanica regarding the manufacture of Russia's medium-range super-jet and a memorandum of intentions on nuclear energy between the Federal Agency for Atomic Energy and Enel.

Prodi and Putin said they had also discussed latest developments in Kosovo, Iran, Lebanon and the Middle East and had agreed that multilateralism and negotiations, rather than force, provide the best means to ensure a solution to international crises.

The Italian premier said he had raised freedom of the press and human rights issues with Putin, but did not elaborate.

The Bari summit came as a former health minister from the troubled Russian republic of Chechnya, Umar Khanbiev, asked to be granted political asylum in Italy.

Prodi and Putin also vowed to help each other promote better relations between the Roman Catholic and the Russian Orthdox churches, divided by a 1,000-year-old schism.

'Russia's Orthodox patriarch wants to develop friendly relations between the two sister churches and Russia will favour this dialogue,' Putin told reporters.

Putin held his first ever meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on Tuesday. Though the Russian leader did not invite the pope to Moscow, relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church are said to have improved since Joseph Ratzinger's election as pope two years ago.

The Russian president was to travel to Athens later on Wednesday.