MOSCOW, October 26. / TASS /. Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft and Russia’s Foreign Ministry have signed an agreement on cooperation, a correspondent with TASS reported from the signing ceremony on Monday.
The document was signed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin.
"We have been cooperating with the company for a long time and it’s been a quite intensive cooperation, we have accumulated a good experience of mutual support. Given that Rosneft is the largest state-owned oil company with an extensive network of branches and partners and a very professional set of employees, headed by Igor Sechin, the man with a huge experience in public office, this is a great acquisition for our foreign operations in the world markets," Lavrov said.
"Energy security and its maintenance are in focus of the global politics. Natural competition, which is getting more tensed due to objective reasons, is complemented by unfair competition - these are illegitimate sanctions and attempts to spread national laws extraterritorially to the companies of third countries they have absolutely nothing to do with. That is why the intertwining of business and public interests requires a closer coordination of state agencies, executive authority and business," Lavrov said.
"The signed agreement provides the basis for cooperation, information exchange, consultations in times of an exacerbated competition and manipulation on the markets. Our company is involved in 20 foreign projects, for us it is important," Sechin said.
The agreement will provide for a better coordination between Rosneft and the ministry during implementation of major international projects, according to a statement by Rosneft.
The document envisages provision of support of the Foreign Ministry to Rosneft in its foreign trade activities, organization of meetings with the leaders of foreign states and international organizations. In its turn Rosneft will support the Foreign Ministry by providing its experts in the field of international economic cooperation which will strengthen the ministry’s potential of trade and economic, scientific and technical contacts.