Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama confirmed on Friday in a telephone conversation that bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization are complete.
"The sides said that in line with agreements reached at their negotiations in Washington, bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the WTO are complete," Medvedev's spokeswoman Natalya Timakova said.
Following his conversation with Obama, Medvedev met with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.
"The head of state thanked the government for its work towards completing the bilateral negotiations and instructed it to technically formalize the agreements reached with the United States," Timakova said.
"The president also gave instructions to step up multilateral talks on Russia's accession to the WTO, which will be the final stage of accession to the organization," she said.
Earlier on Friday, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Moscow and Washington had resolved the last of their disagreements concerning Russia's accession to the global trade body.
Preparations for Russia's accession to the WTO will take from two to four months, after which the accession procedure will begin, he said.
Although the average WTO accession period is five to seven years, Russia has been seeking membership for 17 years and is the only major economy outside the global trade body.
Medvedev has admitted that the country still has problems with the protection of intellectual property rights, a major impediment to WTO accession, but says tackling this issue is a priority for the Russian government.
During a meeting outside Washington in June, Medvedev and Obama agreed to complete talks on Russia's accession as quickly as possible, with Medvedev suggesting they could be completed by the end of September.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, however, voiced concerns earlier this month that the country is unlikely to join the WTO by the projected date of January 1.
On Thursday, Putin said Russia would be ready to accept restrictions imposed by the WTO only after it has joined it.
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti)
