Moscow, June 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said today he was willing to cooperate with whomever the Mexican people elected as their next president in July 2006.
When speaking to a Moscow press conference after talks with Mexico's incumbent president, Vicente Fox, Putin said Mexico had been "a reliable partner" in the past few years and had pursued an independent foreign policy.
He praised President Fox for his efforts to eradicate poverty, which have cut the number of poor people in the country by almost a third in the past four-and-a-half years. He also welcomed his counterpart's success in sustaining high economic growth rates, which should allow Russian-Mexican economic cooperation to be expanded further.
