Prince Philippe: "We have passed the first and most important stage of establishing economic cooperation"

On June 29, President of Tatarstan met with the Crown Prince of Belgium Philippe, Duke of Brabant.

At the outset of the meeting, Mintimer Shaimiev warmly thanked the distinguished guest for having found time to visit Tatarstan within his brief visit to Russia. President Shaimiev emphasised that in the course of his private talk with Prince Philippe he concluded that Belgium seriously intended to develop long-term co-operation with Tatarstan.

"This is especially important as Belgium is a state that holds a leading position in Europe and the world. We are on the path of progress and we would greatly benefit from learning from out Belgian partners," emphasised Mintimer Shaimiev.

The rest of the talk was held behind the closed doors. Following the meeting, President Shaimiev and Prince Philippe answered questions from journalists.

"We had a tete-a-tete meeting, then we continued with more participants," said the President of Tatarstan. "The main conclusion I can make after being personally introduced as well as from our negotiations and opinion exchange is that a big step is now being made in terms of comprehensive co-operation between Belgium and Russia. We are set to use all the available possibilities to successfully promote our economic co-operation with this well-developed democratic European state."

Mintimer Shaimiev enhanced that economic cooperation would benefit the both parties, thanked His Royal Highness once again for visiting Tatarstan and expressed expectation that "the impressions received would allow establishing successful cooperation".

"I would primarily like to thank Mister President of the Republic of Tatarstan for the cordial reception that we had," said Prince Philippe. "I was virtually fascinated by talking to Mister Shaimiev. I told Mister President that were I asked to in one word generalise my impressions from staying in Russia and Tatarstan I would say "warmth". Warmth could be felt during all our contacts at all levels. I believe, we have passed the first and most important stage of establishing relations of required interaction in the economic sphere in general and between particular companies as well. We have talked a lot about this sector of our economic co-operation and have had an effective exchange of opinions in the course of our meeting. As for the Belgian party, there is already a concrete result of this visit - a Belgian mission is being organized that will come here. This is a very good sign.

I was pleased with the fact that the members of the Belgian delegation, who are very experienced people, heads of ministries, companies and industrial associations, liked the way we embark on the road of innovative development. We would like to further promote our co-operation in the innovation branches, the more so as there is a great intellectual and industrial potential in our republic, there are examples of cooperation with foreign companies in the high technologies sector. There is the example of the German VOIT that successfully supplies to Tatarstan bus transmissions, there are other successful projects.

In the conclusion, Mintimer Shaimiev quoted the statement the Prince had made earlier at the meeting: "We have planted a seed in a fertile soil and it will necessarily grow and produce good fruit".

While commenting on the results of the visit of the Belgian delegation to Tatarstan, Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on international affairs, Chairman of the Association of international cultural and business co-operation Russia-Belgium Vassily Likhachev said: "This is the first visit to Russia of such a representative delegation organized in the framework of implementing the decisions made at the XVII Rusisa-EU summit and preparation for the new Russia-EU summit to be held in Saint-Petersburg."