JOINT STATEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON ESTABLISHING RUSSIAN-AMERICAN BUSINESS DIALOGUE

Acting in the spirit of our discussions in the course of our Ljubljana meeting, we welcome the initiative of the Russian and US business communities that by launching a Russian-American Business Dialogue are giving a fresh impetus to our bilateral relations in the sphere of trade and investment.

We expect this dialogue to progress in three key directions: it will broaden contacts between the business communities of the two countries; identify areas in which laws, regulatory acts and current practices impede trade and investment; and become a forum that would confront the governments of our countries with questions affecting the interests of the business communities.

We intend to facilitate the progress of economic reforms, the shaping of a transparent and predictable investment climate and the establishment of the rule of law, and also to work for the early integration of the Russian Federation into WTO.

The Dialogue will be open to the interested Russian and American companies and to business associations. We hope in this way to involve in it large, medium-sized and especially small business from most diverse sectors, including technology-focused production units. We welcome the proposals of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, the Russian-US Council for Business Cooperation, the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia and the US-Russia Business Council to assume leadership in these efforts.

We welcome the proposals of the organizers of the Dialogue to draft official reports for the governments of the Russian Federation and the USA. We state our intention to detail minister-level representatives so that they should receive the first official report of the Dialogue early next year.

Genoa, July 22, 2001

Publication of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation.