Paulson in Russia to meet with Medvedev, Putin
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson arrived in Moscow on Sunday for economic talks with Russia’s top leaders that some observers say could help shift the focus of a sometimes frosty U.S.-Russia relationship towards the more productive areas of trade and investment.
Paulson, on his first trip to Russia since taking over as Treasury Secretary nearly two years ago, will have dinner with Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin on Sunday night before closed-door meetings on Monday with new President Dmitry Medvedev and his predecessor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the U.S. Treasury Department said.
He also will meet with First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov before flying to Berlin as part of a five-day trip that also will include meetings with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Finance Minister Alistair Darling.
The Treasury has said little about the meetings so far, other than that Paulson wants to discuss the global economy, the need for countries to stay open to foreign investment and efforts to protect the global banking system from abuse by Iran.
But Paulson has an opportunity to strengthen economic ties with Russia by jump-starting talks towards a bilateral investment treaty and persuading Moscow to buy into “best practices” guidelines for sovereign wealth funds, said Anders Aslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a think-tank in Washington.
“I think the surprise might be something on bilateral investment,” said Aslund, noting that Russia has similar investment treaties with 38 other countries.
As a result, U.S payday loans payday advance lenders. investment in Russia has fallen far behind Europe, which he noted supplies 57 percent of Russia’s imports versus 3 percent coming from the United States.
“The U.S. has lost out on this massive boom that has taken place in Russia since 2000,” Aslund added. “They’ve discussed the wrong issues. The U.S. has discussed security issues and missile defense with Russia when they should have discussed trade and investment.”
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