Costa Rica, Russia Revive Trade, Energy Agreements
Costa Rica and Russia have revived a series of agreements on trade and energy, Costa Rican Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno and visiting Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said on Wednesday.

Kislyak and Stagno made the remarks at a joint press conference on Wednesday, the last day of Kislyak's two-day visit, following a late Tuesday meeting with Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

The three agreed to activate a reciprocal investment protection agreement, signed in 1999 but never brought into force.

"We will also seek an agreement to avoid double taxation, and an agreement that will facilitate the coordination of banks in the two countries," Stagno said.

Stagno said that Costa Rica-Russia trade fluctuated a lot, and that many Costa Rican products appeared in Russian trade statistics as products of a third party, which prompted the two countries to seek a more direct relationship.

Russia currently imports us$17 million worth of Costa Rican products, down from a peak of us$34 million dollars in 1998.

Stagno said that the figures gave ample room for exports to increase, adding, "I called a meeting of the Central American Integration System (SICA) energy ministers to allow Russia to offer help and opportunities for collaboration."

Costa Rica currently holds SICA's rotating presidency, and the meeting is part of an existing energy cooperation agreement.

Stagno also presented to Kislyak his country's key foreign policy ideas, including proposals, dubbed the Costa Rica Consensus, for writing off debts and promoting investments in education and health for countries that reduced their arms budgets.

At a meeting in February 2007, international aid experts would hold a session on the Costa Rica Consensus and present it to the international community, Stagno said.

For his part, Kislyak said he agreed with Stagno that Russia was not fully using its relationships.

He said he was very interested to hear the Costa Rica Consensus ideas, adding that his nation would follow progress on the regulation of the arms trade, in which Russia is one of the world's largest trading nations.

"Many organizations and nations are trying to solve the disarmament problem," Kislyak said. "We believe that before setting up working groups, there may already be areas where many states are in agreement. My country would be very interested in analyzing such a document."