In replying to the journalists' question about the themes of his forthcoming bilateral meetings with the French president Jacques Chirac and the German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, President Putin said as follows: "Germany is our major trade and economic partner." In his words, Russia's trade with Germany, amounting to over 20 billion euros, exceeds that with the United States.
"Therefore, regular meetings with the German leadership are absolutely justified and needed by both Moscow and Berlin," the president said.
"The main theme of the meeting is the economic agenda, and this applies to France, too", Putin noted. In his words, Russia and France have been actively developing cooperation in the military-space sphere. Russia feels confident in this hi-tech sphere, even a leader to a certain extent," Putin said. "For the first time, we have built military aircraft jointly with such a big country as France. Now we are developing relations in the sphere of space exploration," he stressed.
The Russian president expressed gratitude to France, Germany and Italy for support of Russia's participation in the launches of space rockets from the Kourou airfield in French Guiana (South America). "This project has been actually implemented," Putin noted. Apart from this, he said that Russian-French joint sea exercises would be held. To quote Putin, "we are planning exercises together with the French Navy." "In fact, we have a long list of issues to be discussed with the French president and the German chancellor," Putin said in conclusion.
