Translated material
Eastern enterprise
South Korea is ready for major economic projects with Russia
South Korea is ready to help Russia in the development of the Western Kamchatka shelf , the construction of facilities for the 2012 APEC summit in Vladivostok and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Russia, in turn, is ready to increase gas supplies to South Korea and consider implementing a large-scale project to connect the Trans-Siberian Railway with the Trans-Korean Railway. These are the main economic results of the first official visit of the President of the Republic of Korea Lee Myung-bak to Moscow . However, he is already familiar with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. They met in Japan during the G8 summit on the island of Hokkaido.The two presidents yesterday demonstrated relative agreement on the most pressing geopolitical issues. South Korea has even expressed cautious support for Russian actions in the Caucasus. “The parties expressed concern about the recent situation around Georgia and spoke in favor of resolving it through peaceful means through dialogue, which will contribute to regional stability and international peace,” the presidents said in a joint statement adopted following their negotiations.
Moscow, in turn, expressed its readiness to more actively participate in resolving problems with Seoul’s closest neighbor, troubled North Korea. “Of course, we paid priority attention to the situation around the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula and the promotion of inter-Korean dialogue,” Dmitry Medvedev told reporters. “Russia consistently advocates for ensuring the nuclear-free status of the peninsula and for progress within the framework of the six-party negotiations.”
According to Mr. Medvedev, there is every chance to bring bilateral relations to the level of strategic partnership. His Korean colleague was much more specific. Lee Myung-bak said that Seoul is interested in increasing the Korean quota for pollock fishing in Russian waters and expanding gas supplies. Gazprom and the Kogaz Corporation signed a memorandum of understanding on this topic. In addition, an agreement was signed between the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy on cooperation in the field of geology and subsoil use. As the Korean president said, agreements have been reached on the development of the West Kamchatka shelf.
An agreement was also signed between Vnesheconombank and the Import-Export Bank of Korea on long-term cooperation in organizing joint financing of investment projects. Banks will consider projects worth at least $85 million with a payback period of more than five years.
In addition, at the highest level a decision was made to simplify the procedure for issuing short-term visas and to widely celebrate the Russian-Korean anniversary. In 2010 it will be exactly 20 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
After the meeting in the Kremlin, the Korean leader headed to the White House. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, receiving the guest, expressed confidence that all these projects can be implemented. “Over the past five years, trade turnover has grown not by some percentage, but by 6.8 times, and our ties are being diversified,” he said. “It is possible to implement large projects ahead, in which both Russia and Korea are interested.”
In the first half of 2008 alone, the volume of South Korean capital investments in the Russian economy amounted to $740 million. The total volume of South Korean investments operating in Russia reached almost 3 billion. Trade turnover last year amounted to $15 billion, and by the end of this year the parties expect 20 billion dollars.