MANILA /the Philippines/, October 5. /TASS/. The Philippines is considering the draft of intergovernmental agreement with Russia in nuclear energy, Russia’s Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Alexey Gruzdev said in an interview with TASS following the third meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation between the two countries that has taken place in Manila.

"We believe that cooperation in nuclear energy is one of prior areas. And we spoke about it today during the meeting of the intergovernmental commission. We have formed a set of proposals for our Philippine friends in various areas of cooperation in peaceful use of nuclear energy both for electricity generation and in related sectors, including nuclear medicine, agriculture. All this is on the table. All this is based on concluding a base intergovernmental agreement, the project has been drafted and it is already under consideration of our Philippine friends now," Gruzdev said.

"We are perfectly aware of the fact that this is a strategic cooperation area, its strategic nature is particularly determined by the necessity of serious consideration, exploration of public opinion, economic parameters. We accept understandingly the fact that this is no quick process, but we are ready for cooperating with our partners in every possible way and we are convinced that those projects have good prospects," he added.

The participants of the Russian-Philippine business forum on Wednesday discussed the prospects of boosting trade cooperation. Russia’s delegation was represented by such companies as Rosatom, Gazprom, Novostal-M, Miratorg, Uralkali, TMK, Kamaz and more. Representatives of Russian governmental agencies, the Bank of Russia, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision and the Federal Customs Service also took part in the forum.