On June 24 the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Igor Ivanov received the Foreign Affairs Minister of Italy, Lamberto Dini, who is in Moscow with a delegation of the Council of Europe.

The two ministers reviewed the state of Russian-Italian relations in the light of the results of the working visit to Italy by President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation on June 5-6. Both sides took note of the high level of bilateral relations and stressed that the Russian-Italian summit had given a new impetus to the progressive development of the relations of partnership between Russia and Italy. Igor Ivanov stressed that bilateral interaction is becoming an ever more notable factor on the European and world political arena.

The ministers discussed the future calendar of Russian-Italian political contacts.

In the context of the discussion of bilateral interaction in the economic field the special significance was noted of the 5th session of the Russian-Italian council for economic, industrial and monetary cooperation which will be held in July this year in implementing the accords reached during the Russian President's visit to Italy.

Igor Ivanov and Lamberto Dini spoke in favor of the implementation of major bilateral cooperation projects, notably the production of FIAT cars in Nizhny Novgorod, the building of the gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey across the bed of the Black Sea ("The Blue Stream" project) and joint development of a training plane YAK/AEM-130.