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Russia and Australia. Mr Graeme Meehan says there is a great potential in relations between our countries

Грейм Михан
© Форпост Северо-Запад

After visiting the Mining University, the Ambassador of Australia to the Russian Federation stated the need to expand academic cooperation between both countries.

Graeme Meehan, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Australia to the Russian Federation, paid a working visit to Saint-Petersburg Mining University on October 3. Mr Meehan was shown a number of specialised classrooms and laboratories, including the research center established by the Mining University in cooperation with Orica, an Australian-based multinational corporation. The headquarters of the company is located in East Melbourne.

As Graeme Meehan explains, ”I was appointed to be an Ambassador only this June, and getting acquainted with the Mining University was one of the most important tasks for me to do. After all, this University has connections with numerous Australian companies, enterprises and higher education institutions. Besides, I am actually impressed by the beauty of the historic building inside of which the University is located as well as by the potential shown by students, teachers and researchers.”

Грейм Михан
© Форпост Северо-Запад

During the meeting with Vladimir Litvinenko, the Rector of the Mining University, both parties had a discussion on the current state and future prospects of development of Russian-Australian relations. As Mr. Ambassador noted, both Australia and Russia share a number of similar features. For instance, both our countries are rich in natural resources. Therefore, extending collaboration between the countries to such fields as increase in mineral extraction and processing efficiency as well as the promotion of academic mobility should be considered as a natural course of events.

As Mr Meehan noted, ”It could be said that integration of our higher educational institutions is relatively insignificant. After my visit to the Mining University, I became convinced that this process should be intensified, and we should be more active in doing so.”

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The Ambassador also added that Australian companies keep investing in Russia despite that political relations between Russia and the Western countries are quite tense now. As an example, Tiger's Realm owns 80% of the coking coal deposits located on Chukotka and Orica, which makes explosives for companies of the mining sector, is one of the long-standing partners of the Mining University, PhosAgro and a few other Russian enterprises.

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