Moscow and London plans to expand cooperation during the preparation of the Olympic Games 2014 in the Russian Black sea resort city of Sochi, the Foreign Ministry said on Monday after talks between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Secretary for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Peter Mandelson.
Lavrov and Mandelson discuss pressing issues of Russian-British relations and called for overcoming existing disagreements over some bilateral problems that should not impede business cooperation between the two countries that successfully develops in various areas, including trade, economic, investment and energy sectors, the ministry said.
Lavrov and Maldelson noted the importance of the inter-governmental committee on trade and investments as a mechanism for stimulating trade and economic ties between Russia and Britain.
“Mutual interest was stated in broader cooperation between the two countries in high-tech fields, in the preparation of the Olympic Games 2014 in Sochi,” the ministry said.
Earlier this year, British specialists taught their Russian colleagues how to organise Olympic Games at a seminar held in Moscow.
In February, a British delegation visited Moscow and Krasnodar to meet with representatives of the Sochi-2014 organising committee, the state-run corporation Olimpstroi, the Ministry for Regional Development, and officials from the administrations of the Krasnodar Territory and Sochi.
The seminar was held as part of a visit by British businessmen working in the field of designing and operating sport facilities. The purpose of the trip was to study the programme of organising and holding Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
Representatives from leading British companies that create and operate Olympic infrastructure attended the seminar. Reports focused on the selection of designers and developers, organisation of large-scale sport events, risk management, insurance, media technologies.