On September 22 Russian Prime-Minister will hold negotiations with Irish Prime-Minister and his counterpart. And on September 29 the two countries will mark 35th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.

Political relation.

Russian Forieng Mnister Sergey Lavrov will meet Irish Prime-Minister Brian Cowen and Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin in Dublin next Monday. The diplomats will discuss a wide range of issues of the bilateral Russian-Irish relations including the schedule of upcoming political meetings, the acute topics of the international agenda. They are to talk over in details the developments of Russia-EU relations, the present European security problems.

Russia shows interest in keeping external political dialogue with Ireland. The two countries treat lots of top international issues in the similar way, including the central role of UN in the world affairs.

Trade-economic relations.

The warm atmosphere in the political relations between Russia and Ireland contribute to deepening of the trade-economic cooperation. The bilateral turnover has grown on 45% in the first half this year. In 2007 it exceeded 1 billion USD.

Irish straight investments to Russia will soon reach the level of the biggest countries which are constantly present in the Russian investment market. The total amount of the Irish cumulative investments in the first half this year has made up over eight billion USD. Some Irish companies, among them ARH and Smurfit Kappa, are developing industrial construction in our country. Irish partners have set business contacts with Russian regions, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Tatarstan, Mordovia and Bashkiria.

Russian-Irish Intergovernmental Committee on Business Cooperation Development is plying an important role in building up the trade-economic cooperation and fulfilling the whole potential of business partnership between Russia and Ireland. The next session of the Committee is planned for the nearest future in Dublin.

Cultural relations.

The links in the cultural sphere between the two countries are developing rather successfully, especially on the base of three-year programs in the field of education, science and culture. The program for 2008-2010 was signed in the beginning of 2008.

The University of Dublin are keeping relations with Russian high institutions, among them The Lomonosov Moscow State University, The Saratov State University, The Nizhniy Novgorod State University, The Maxim Gorky Literary Institute and The High School of Management in St. Petersburg.

To hold St. Patrick parade in Moscow on March 17 has become a good tradition. The National Day of Ireland has been celebrated in New Arbat Street since 1992 up to now, with a little break between 1999 till 2001.

Since 2000 the two countries are cooperating within the President’s program on training Russian managers in Ireland. At the present time they regard the opportunity to develop this program into mutual exchange.

On September 29 Russia and Ireland will mark 35th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (which were originally set between Ireland and the USSR). The multisided relations between Russia and Ireland have been dynamically developing.

Sources:

    www.rian.ru

    www.ru.wikipedia.org