Russia, South Africa in Talks in Pretoria

PRETORIA. March 19 (Interfax) – Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and South African Vice President Phumzile Gloria Mlambo Ngcuka are holding expanded talks on Monday.

Fradkov told journalists on his arrival in Pretoria on Sunday that during his working visit to South Africa the parties would discuss ways to broaden cooperation in the mining and diamond industries, in space and in the energy sector, primarily in nuclear power engineering.

The Russian government is represented by Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev, Deputy Energy and Industry Minister Ivan Materov, Deputy Agriculture Minister Igor Rubenya and Russian Space Agency Roscosmos’s deputy head Yury Nosenko.

The expanded talks were preceded by one-on-one talks between Fradkov and Mlambo Ngcuka.

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