Lavrov to attend presentation of Oryol region's economic potential

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MOSCOW, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- The central Russian Oryol region on
Tuesday will hold a presentation of its economic potential at the premises
of the Russian Foreign Ministry in downtown Moscow.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will attend the presentation.
The region's delegation led by governor Alexander Kozlov will speak
about the region's cooperation potential in such areas as the basic and
light industries, the agricultural sector, and tourism.
According to expert estimates, in the recent years the Oryol region
has been ranked among Russian regions having minimal investment risks. The
region governor has recently initiated a "reset" of the region's industry.
Better work organization and new economic models focusing on cooperation
with investors will make it possible to consolidate positions of the Oryol
companies on the foreign market, the governor said.
The region has vast reserves of iron ores, brown coal, limestone,
clays, and sands. There is an uranium ores deposit in the region.
Products of Oryol region's companies re exported in 80 world nations.
"But still, we want to find new cooperation areas," Kozlov stressed.
The region's major partners include France, Bulgaria, Poland, China,
and Ukraine. The region exports dairy products, road-building machines,
ferrous and non-ferrous metals. Its imports includes mechanical tools,
animal products.

.Second Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum opens in Norway.

OSLO, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- The Second Northern Dimension
Parliamentary Forum opens on Tuesday in Norway's Tromso.
The Forum will include members from the European Parliament, the
national parliaments of Russia, Iceland and Norway, representatives for
indigenous peoples as well as representatives of regional parliamentary
bodies representing all national parliaments in the Northern Dimension
region, including Canada and the United States of America. Participants in
the Forum will discuss ways of developments and boosting cooperation in
Europe's northern regions.
The Russian delegation is led by Valentina Pivnenko, the chairwoman of
the State Duma committee for the affairs of the North and Far East.
The Northern Dimension was set up in 1999 as an international program
of the European Union. In 2006, Northern Dimension countries' foreign
minister held their first meeting in Helsinki in 2006, and met for the
second time in Oslo in November 2010.
The first Northern Dimension Parliamentary Forum was organized by the
European Parliament in February 2009. The Forum has been instituted to
improve cooperation and development in Northern Europe and the Arctic.
The primary focus of the Forum should be reports on the implementation
of the partnerships within the Northern Dimension (the Northern Dimension
Environmental Partnership, Northern Dimension Partnership on Culture, the
Northern Dimension Partnership in Public Health and Social Well-being,
Northern Dimension Partnership on Transport and Logistics). The Forum aims
at coordinating the policies of the parliamentary bodies within the
Northern Dimension region.
The Northern Dimension addresses regional challenges in the far north,
a region that includes the Norway and Iceland, as well as Russia. The aim
is to encourage closer dialogue and co-operation between the European
Union and its member states, as well as the European Economic Area and
Russia.

.Belarus to buy Russian TOR-M2E missile systems within three years.

MINSK, February 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia will deliver a first batch of
its TOR-M2E missile systems to the Belarusian armed forces, Belarusian
Defence Minister Yuri Zhlobin said on Monday.
"We continue to work with our strategic partner, I mean the Russian
Federation," he said in an interview with the national television. "We
have rather good relations in the area of military technical cooperation.
This year, we shall receive first state-of-the-art air-defence complexes,
or TOR-M2E systems."
According to the minister, Belarus plans to equip its armed forces
with such systems within three years. "We have signed relevant deals on
the most beneficial terms," he stressed.
He also said the country's army annually accepts for service some 15
to 17 new weapons or hardware "primarily of the domestic design." Thus,
Belarus is completing the design of its fist unmanned aircraft and plans
to begin their factory trials by the end of the current year, the minister
noted.
The Tor (English for Torus) missile system is an all-weather low to
medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for
engaging airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, precision guided
munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic targets. Originally
developed by the Soviet Union under the designation 9K330, the system is
commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 "Gauntlet".
-0-ras