Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with representatives of the biggest companies from Germany on Thursday, the Kremlin press service said, according to TASS news agency.
“On November 1, Vladimir Putin will meet with representatives of largest German companies and of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations. They will discuss issues of the conditions and prospects for developing trade and economic relations between Russia and Germany, implementing large-scale joint projects, including in the spheres of energy, industrial cooperation, digital economy and agriculture,” the Kremlin press service said.
According to Russian media, among those invited to the meeting are the chairman of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations Wolfgang Buechele and its executive director Michael Harms, the head of the Russian-German Chamber of Commerce Matthias Schepp, as well as representatives of the Nord Stream 2 consortium, Knauf Gips, Volkswagen, BASF, and others.
One of the largest projects implemented by the Russian side with the participation of German companies is the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, two lines of which are planned to be built by the end of 2019. Russian Gazprom’s partners in this project are Germany’s Wintershall and Uniper, Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and British-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell.
Germany is one of Russia’s traditional key trade partners. In 2017, the bilateral turnover grew for the first time since the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions in 2014. The turnover increased by 22.8% and reached $50 billion. According to the Kremlin, in the first eight months of 2018, the volume of bilateral trade has grown by almost 25% compared to the same period last year. Russian exports to Germany grew by 35% and reached $22.1 billion, while imports increased by 12% to $16.9 billion.
