Turkey and Baku to discuss bilateral relations, regional security.

BAKU, May 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Bilateral relations and the regional
security will be the main topics of the negotiations between Azerbaijan's
President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on
Monday.
At first, Erdogan and Aliyev will meet one-to-one, and later on, the
delegations of the two countries will join their leaders. Prices for
Azerbaijan's gas exported to Europe via Turkey will be one of the main
issues on the agenda.
Some sources say that after months of talks the sides have agreed on
the tariffs for gas supplied via Turkey and on prices for gas supplies to
Turkey itself. Experts believe, now the sides will be able to start
working the Phase Two of Shah Deniz gas production. Shah Deniz has
reserves of 1.2 tcm of gas, and future investments in the project are
expected to make up 20 billion dollars. The project may start in 2016-17.
Baku and Ankara may also reach progress on the Nabucco, Trans Adriatic and
the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipelines which depend on gas supplies via Turkey.
Details of agreements between Azerbaijan and Turkey are not public.
According to Turkey's media, a formal agreement may be expected over
Erdogan's visit on Monday. Other sources doubt any documents will be
signed this time.
The two leaders may discuss how to intensify cooperation in other
sectors of the economy and in joint projects in infrastructures.
The political part of the negotiations may include the relations
between the two countries, the present state of the Armenia-Turkey
relations, settlement of the Karabakh conflict and Turkey's participation
in peacemaking process.
Erdogan will take part in the official opening of a monument to the
founder of the modern Turkish state Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Baku.


.Russia, Ukraine may have joint ventures in aircraft building -view.

MOSCOW, May 17 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev
believes Russia and Ukraine may have an aircraft-building joint venture.
"Shall we have joint ventures? It is quite possible," he said in an
interview to Ukraine's media on Sunday. "We need to come to an agreement
on this first."
"We have been discussing some ideas lately, for example, how to
continue our cooperation on certain models, like An-140 and An-148,"
Medvedev said. "One of these models may be assembled at the enterprises of
Russia's United Aircraft Corporation, and other models may follow suit."
"We have positive experience in aircraft-building, and our companies,
I mean the Antonov /in Ukraine/ and the United Aircraft Corporation,
contact closely."
"Cooperation in aircraft building is quite logical, as we have a
similar technical basis and the understanding that it is high time to
design aircrafts not on paper but with the use of digital technologies,"
he said.
Medvedev told about his recent order to have digital versions of all
new cars, vessels and aircrafts.
"We need to have digital models, and this will be to the benefit of
Ukraine to use an up-to-date model," he said. "I would very much welcome
joint ventures of this kind."
Medvedev said that it would be possible to think about establishing
joint ventures in other sectors, too.
"I believe, that Russian companies may take part in the modernisation
of major industrial enterprises in Ukraine, and, surely, this should be
done to the mutual benefit," he said. "We used to cooperate very
successfully, and if we manage to revive this cooperation, the turnover
between our countries will grow not only with the growth of supplied
energy."


.Russian tourists travelling abroad may exceed 11 mln - Rostourism.

MOSCOW, May 17 (Itar-Tass) -- The head of Russia's Federal Agency,
Rostourism, Anatoly Yaroshkin hopes the number of Russian tourists
travelling abroad may be equal to that of the pre-crisis times.
"Over the pre-crisis year 2008, about 11.3 million Russians travelled
abroad," he said. "We expect, that over the current year, the number of
our tourists going to foreign countries may reach that level."
According to Rostourism, during 2009 Russian tourist companies
registered a slump of 16 percent against the previous year. Only 9.5
million tourists chose to travel abroad.
Every year about 35 million Russians travel abroad for different
purposes. The most popular countries to visit are Turkey, Finland, Egypt
and China.

-0-kar


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