Chilean President Ricardo Lagos is visiting Russia on October 2-6. What is the current state of Russian-Chilean relations?

- Comprehensive cooperation with Chile is an important line of Russian foreign policy in the Latin American region. We are pleased with the current level of Russian-Chilean political contacts, which move onwards the whole set of bilateral relations. Ricardo Lagos's visit to Russia, a significant event in Russian-Chilean relations, is meant to give them a new quality in many spheres.

What are the lines of Russian-Chilean cooperation on the international scene?

- We are satisfied with the constructive character of Russian-Chilean cooperation on the international scene. The fact that Russia and Chile's positions on many global and regional issues are either close or identical creates a good basis for their active cooperation in the framework of international forums, the United Nations in the first place.

Russia and Chile stand up for creation of a multipolar world order - an order that would guarantee equal and mutually advantageous relations between states.

Moscow and Santiago attach special importance to stability at global and regional levels, as well as to preservation of the existing system of treaties ensuring control over armaments, disarmament, non-proliferation of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction. They are unanimous in their opinion that international terrorism, separatism and religious extremism pose a serious threat to security.

We are aiming at a full use of the potential of bilateral working groups and top-level consultations dealing with complex tasks of strengthening security mechanisms in the face of new threats and challenges. We also intend to further the Russian-Chilean dialogue on ways of combating terrorism, drug-trafficking, and transnational organised crime.

Our countries pay a great deal of attention to the problem of international economic relations and strive to make the globalisation process more socially oriented.

What are the preconditions and prospects for Russian-Chilean cooperation in the economic field, etc.?

- In 2001, the volume of Russian-Chilean trade amounted to 50.4 million dollars. During the first half of 2002, it reached 35.9 million dollars.

Diversification of trade and economic links is an important part of the Russian-Chilean dialogue. Vast reserves for mutually advantageous cooperation open up in such fields as aerospace industry, mineral resource industry, oil production and processing, transport, and fishery.

The fact that Ricardo Lagos is coming to Russia accompanied by a delegation of Chilean entrepreneurs suggests that Chilean business circles display a growing interest in Russia.

Russia, on its part, is eager to learn from Chile's experience of effecting economic reforms and introducing changes to its social sphere - pension provision, private medical insurance and so on. We are grateful to the Chilean side for sharing its experience with us.

Russia and Chile are engaged in systematic efforts to perfect and modernise the contractual and legal basis of bilateral relations.

They are also preparing a series of intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents, including a memorandum on military-and-technical cooperation and agreements on cooperation in research and exploration of space, peaceful use of atomic energy, mutual help in customs affairs, cancellation of visas for Russian owners of diplomatic and business passports and for Chilean owners of diplomatic, official and special passports, cooperation between the archival departments of the Russian and Chilean foreign ministries.

As for cooperation in the framework of regional structures, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation organisation and the Rio Group - how topical is that?

- Russia intends to strengthen cooperation with Chile in the frames of the APEC. Both countries regard the APEC not just as a unique (for the Asia Pacific Region) structure allowing multilateral dialogue on key issues of trade and economic cooperation in the region, but also as an effective mechanism for jointly tackling such acute global problems as international terrorism.

We hope the next APEC summit in Latin America (in Mexico, to be exact) will help expand Russia's trans-Pacific ties with Latin America on the whole and with Chile in particular.

We regard our multilateral dialogue with the region's interstate unions as an important channel of strengthening cooperation between Russia and Latin America.

We have a good tradition of holding Russia - Rio Group consultations on political issues and problems concerning international and regional security. Hopefully, we shall be able to strengthen cooperation with Chile as a member of the RG's Co-ordination Three in the format of Russia's links with this influential political union from Latin America.

Both original members of the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, Russia and Chile are among the leading Antarctic Powers whose cooperation in the area specified by the Treaty has a traditionally constructive character. Russia is planning to develop comprehensive Antarctic cooperation with Chile on the basis of a corresponding intergovernmental Agreement dated February 14, 1995.