MOSCOW (AFP)--Russia will throw its support behind a joint
Magna-Sberbank bid for a stake in car maker Adam Opel GmbH and
press ahead with its Nord Stream gas pipeline when President Dmitry
Medvedev visits Germany Thursday, his aide said.
At the talks in Munich, Medvedev and German Chancellor Angela
Merkel will oversee the signing of a raft of deals, including a
$500 million credit agreement, Medvedev's foreign policy aide
Sergei Prikhodko said.
"We'll speak out in support [of the deal] and we'll call on
[Germany] to support it too," Prikhodko told reporters. "It's a
useful deal."
Berlin agreed in late May to support a bid for a majority stake
in Opel by Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc.
(MGA), which teamed up with state-owned Russian bank Sberbank
Rossia (SBRBF) and Russia's second-largest auto maker OAO GAZ Group
(GAZA.RS).
However, some questions have been raised about the deal as
Opel's parent company General Motors has also received interest
from Brussels-based RHJ International SA (RHJI.BT) and from China's
Beijing Automotive Industry Company (BAIC).
Prikhodko said that the two delegations would also discuss Nord
Stream, the multibillion-dollar undersea gas pipeline project which
is backed by Russia and Germany but which still needs approval from
Denmark and Sweden to move ahead.
"On Nord Stream our cooperation and mutual understanding with
the Germans is quite high," Prikhodko said.
Medvedev and Merkel will hold private talks before being joined
by key members of both governments.
The two leaders will also participate in the closing sessions of
the so-called "Petersburg Dialogue," a regular meeting of Russian
and German civil society groups.
Among the documents to be signed or adopted will be a joint
declaration on energy cooperation and an agreement between Russian
Railways and Siemens AG (SI) to establish a joint venture to
produce locomotives.
Russia's state development bank VEB and Germany's Kreditanstalt
fuer Wiederaufbau will sign a $500 million credit agreement to
finance joint projects.
"That's their joint project to finance Russian-German
cooperation, mostly in machine-building," Prikhodko said, adding
that boosting trade will top the agenda.
"Today, in the crisis conditions, it's important for us and
Germany, our leading partner, including in the European Union, to
retain a high volume of trade turnover and support large investment
and other projects and secure support for well-developed regional
ties," he said.
Medvedev and Merkel may also discuss North Korea, Iran's
controversial nuclear program and a G20 summit in Pittsburgh to be
held this year, he added.