Moscow, February 15 /Rompres/ - The Romanian President's working visit to the Russian Federation began on February 14 with a one-on-one meeting between the two heads of state Traian Basescu and Vladimir Putin, followed by an official dinner given by the host in honour of the Romanian senior guest.

The two presidents tackled bilateral political issues and matters related to the regional situation, the Public Communication Department with the Presidential Administration said on Tuesday.

From the perspective of the economic relations between the two countries, President Vladimir Putin voiced the Russian Federation's readiness to participate in the construction of reactors no. 3 and 4 with the Cernavoda plant and to take part in the retooling of the thermal power station Mintia - Deva.

President Basescu and his Russian counterpart agreed on the cooperation between Gazprom and Romgaz for creating underground gas storage facilities and laying gas pipelines across Romania.

President Vladimir Putin stressed the inconvenience caused by the stay regime for Russian investors in Romania (in line with the acquis communautaire) and high customs duties on industrial equipment.

As part of the talks, the Russian president voiced his readiness for a technical-military cooperation with Romania, also stressing the need to step up negotiations over the signing of an agreement on armament production licences.

The Black Sea area was another topic and both Traian Basescu and Vladimir Putin backed the idea of cooperation so that it may become a security area. The two heads of state agreed that the Black Sea area is also important energy-wise. The route of pipelines will be established according to how convenient the offers are. They both agreed on the need to set up a task force of riparian countries, which should take action in case of emergency to fight illegal drugs, weapons and human trafficking.

The two heads of state also hailed the upcoming participation of both countries in the military drills in the Black Sea as part of the BLACKSEAFOR programme, which will take place in August 2005.

Basescu told Putin that Romania wants to get involved in the approach to the Trasndnestr conflict and proposed the expansion of negotiations format by the inclusion of Romania, which takes a direct interest in the issue from the viewpoint of national security. The negotiation format now comprises Russia, Ukraine, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Transdnestr and the Republic of Moldova.

The Romanian president stressed that Romania would agree to the possible creation of NATO bases on Romanian territory, without this being an act of hostility towards the Russian Federation.

The Russian President appreciated Romania's contribution to the UN Security Council and the way in which Romania uses regional initiatives. He said that this kind of cooperation must be strengthened, so that regional bodies may take an active part in preventing crises.

At the end of the talks, Basescu and Putin came out in favour of establishing a means of communication between the two heads of state. The Romanian president invited his Russian counterpart to visit Romania, which Vladimir Putin gladly accepted. The date is to be set through diplomatic channels.

At the news conference on February 15, when asked about the basic treaty between Romania and the Russian Federation, Basescu said "The basic treaty laid the foundations for the development of the political and economic relations between the two states. The signing of this treaty was extremely important in 2003, and an element impossible to quantify called trust must be built up at a political level for the materialization of its provisions." He stressed that the basic treaty must be turned to account by top-level confidence building.

As far as the treasure issue is concerned, Basescu said that a joint commission made up of Russian and Romanian experts had been set up in order to clear up the issue. He added that politicians gave this commission the go-ahead to solve the problem, so that Romanian-Russian talks should now focus on topical matters. Basescu also said that his Russian counterpart appreciated the fact that "they both took an up-to-date approach to the Romanian - Russian agenda as part of talks," openly discussing all issues.

[Source: Romanian National News Agency ROMPRES ]