COOPERATION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND EUROPEAN UNION DISCUSSED BY RUSSIA'S VICE-PREMIER AND DENMARK'S FOREIGN MINISTER








MOSCOW, March 12 /from RIA Novosti's Alla Isayeva/ - Cooperation between Russia and the European Union /EU/ and Denmark was discussed at a meeting in Moscow between Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko and Denmark's Foreign Minister Mogens Lykketoft. 


	Khristenko, in view of Denmark's coming presidency in the EU, stressed the importance of defining aspects of relations between Russia and the European Union. It is in this period, he noted, that "very high activity" will be displayed to enlarge the organisation. 


	Khristenko emphasised that European Union countries to date are major foreign trade partners of Russia's. The present EU members account for 35 percent of all Russia's external trade, and EU candidate members for another 16%.


	Khristenko pointed to great latent potentialities for expanding Russia-Denmark cooperation. He said that in 2000 trade between the two countries reached 1 billion dollars, attaining the pre-1998 crisis levels. 


	Khristenko recalled the varied and rich history of Russian-Danish relations and that the first official document between the two countries was a treaty of amicableness and brotherhood, concluded at the end of the 15th century. "Our ancestors laid down a good basis for cooperation," he remarked.