Lebanon`s president to arrive in Russia on Wednesday.

MOSCOW, February 24 (Itar-Tass) - President Michel Suleyman of the
Lebanese Republic is to pay an official visit to Russia from February 24
to 25 at the invitation of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
Talks between Medvedev and Suleyman are scheduled for Thursday,
February 25, the Kremlin press service announced.
Michel Suleyman's visit to Moscow opens up a new page in relations
between the two countries. During the visit the Lebanese leader will be
accompanied by five Cabinet ministers, among them those who are in charge
of defence, foreign affairs, economy and trade, which is indicative of a
broad format and importance of the forthcoming talks.
Suleyman will be the first Head of the Lebanese Republic to be
received in the Kremlin.
Lebanese-Russian partnership has propitious prospects, Mohammed
Safadi, Minister of Economy and Trade, believes. He said Michel Suleyman's
visit to Moscow would contribute to raising the entire spectrum of
bilateral relations to a qualitatively new level.
"First of all, we expect a breakthrough in trade-and-economic
cooperation," the Minister emphasized during a meeting with a delegation
of Russian businessmen.
Safadi said, "It is important to return to those agreements which were
concluded during the premiership of the late Rafik al-Hariri, but were not
implemented in full owing to the complex internal political situation in
Lebanon". Safadi explained that he meant, in particular, the agreement on
the prevention of double taxation, encouragement of investments, and the
establishment of an intergovernmental commission. The Minister pointed out
that people in Lebanon currently experience big problems with electricity
supply and that the country is in need of additional power capacities. "We
associate great hopes with the first visit of the Head of the Lebanese
Republic to Russia and expect the visit to give an impetus to our
interaction in all fields, including the development of tourism," Safadi
said.
Yuri Ionov, Co-Chairman of the Russo-Lebanese Business Council,
believes that Lebanon must be viewed as the "gate to the whole of the
Middle East for Russian businesses".
In the opinion of the businessman, in order to step up cooperation
with the Arab world, it would be advisable to hold a multilateral business
forum in Beirut to encompass "all the promising areas of our interaction
not only with Lebanon but also with the main Arab countries that maintain
long-standing and close contacts with Russia".
Ionov, who held talks with a number of Cabinet ministers in the
economic segment of the Saad al-Hariri government and executives of
private companies and commercial banks, called for "making use of the
opportunities of the Lebanese business community so as to reach out to new
markets".
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