Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Great Britain in Russia Laurie Bristow paid a working visit to Saint-Petersburg Mining University. During the meeting with the Principal of the University Vladimir Litvinenko, he stated that "the British side is open for cooperation."
The purpose of the visit was to discuss the key points of the II Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue, which was held a month and a half ago in London, as well as agree on organizing the next conference, which will take place at the Mining University in November 2019.
As Laurie Bristow noted, "Despite the difficult political situation, we are ready to collaborate. The British Government welcomes an idea of holding the III Russian-British Raw Materials Dialogue in St. Petersburg, as well as we consider this event an important platform, which contributes to fostering mutually beneficial relationship between our states".
The parties agreed on setting up shortly the working teams, which aim will be to determine the subject matter and scenario of the event. At this stage it is planned to place the main emphasis on interaction of Russian and British business structures employed at oil and gas sector, mining and metallurgy.
Vladimir Litvinenko, on his side, believes that it is essential to actively engage talented young people as participants of the Dialogue. In particular, he offered to allocate grants to fifty highly-qualified scientists from the UK, so that they would take part in the forum, present their scientific developments and participate in joint discussion on potential of cooperation between our countries with Russian representatives.
As the Principal of the Mining University said, "We have good prospects for developing mutually beneficial economic cooperation. Russia has huge raw materials potential, and by now we have learned how to leverage it. Up to 80% of our resources are exported mainly to Europe. What is the most important, however, is that business entities of both our countries are willing to work together and developing partnerships".
