MOSCOW, November 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia and Guatemala will sign an intergovernmental agreement on encouragement and protection of investments on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said after talks with his Guatemalan counterpart Luis Fernando Carrera Castro.

“Most probably, it will help deepen our investment interaction,” he said, citing as an example of effective cooperation a 450-million-dollar investment by Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN), where a Russian company as a stake, into extraction of raw materials in Guatemala. “This is one of the biggest investments in the Guatemalan economy. We are confident that it is not the last one,” Lavrov said.

“We want to improve the legal framework of our relations in other areas,” he said. “We continue to work on draft agreements on mutual recognition of diplomas and scientific degrees and on military-technical cooperation. We work on documents to enhance ties between interior ministries and cooperation in science, culture, technologies and innovations.”

Carrera Castro said, in turn, Russian ranks third among foreign investors into the Guatemalan economy after Colombia and Canada. Russian capital investment in the Central American country totals $120 million a year. This fact “demonstrates Russia’s interest in the Guatemalan economy,” he said.

“We welcome the growth of Russian investments into our economy,” Carrera Castro said. “The agreement we will sign today will help expand and diversify our economic cooperation, boost reciprocal investments and open new areas of interaction.