By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
With President Lee Myung-bak putting a high priority on ``energy diplomacy,'' Russia is ready to increase its economic cooperation with South Korea, a former Russian ambassador to Seoul said Wednesday.
Alexander N. Panov, 64, who served as ambassador between 1992 and 1993, said the Lee government and Russia's incoming administration of Dmitry Medvedev would have a lot of opportunities to work together in various fields, such as energy resources and railroad projects.
``President Lee already said he's very interested in deeper cooperation in energy between the two countries. We completely agree, especially because right now the international economic outlook is gloomy. But in Russia, we have good economic prospects,'' Panov said in an interview with The Korea Times at a Seoul hotel.
``In this sense, your country may use this good economic situation in Russia to cope with economic difficulties which your country is facing now. The energy field is one of such priorities (of bilateral cooperation),'' said the former ambassador, who currently serves as rector of the Diplomatic Academy, affiliated with Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The academy provides quality courses not only for Russian diplomats and ambassadors in service, but also for representatives of foreign nations, such as parliamentarians, business leaders and scholars.
An international conference, hosted by the Korea Foundation, is scheduled to be held in May in Moscow on the energy situation in Eastern Asia and Russian-Korean energy cooperation, said Panov, who represented Moscow at the foundation.
The foundation, affiliated with South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was established in 1991 with the aim of promoting academic and cultural exchange programs with foreign nations.
Panov also referred to potential projects to connect a railway between Russia and the border with South Korea, which he said would help South Korea transport its goods to European nations more easily.
``We're in favor of connecting the trans-Korea railroad system to the trans-Siberian road system. We're working in that direction,'' he said. ``We hope that in the near future, we can modernize part of the railroad connecting Russia and North Korea, which will allow direct access of your goods to Russia and European nations.''
``We also can also develop resources off Siberia and the Far Eastern region,'' Panov added. ``With your investment and your know-how, we can realize our new programs of developing the Far Eastern region.''
The senior diplomat painted a bright picture of six-party nuclear talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Russia is a participating nation in the multilateral talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China and Japan.
``We're moving, maybe not so fast, but there is still progress,'' he said, stressing the key to resolving the nuclear issue is how bilateral relations between Washington and Pyongyang evolve.
North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to disable its main atomic plants and declare all its nuclear programs under the denuclearization-for-assistance pact signed on Feb. 13, 2007.
Under the deal with the five the participating countries, the North is to receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other concessions from the five other nations in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and providing a list of its nuclear activities.
But the communist state failed to provide a complete list of its past and current nuclear activities including an alleged uranium-enrichment program.
Following service in South Korea, Panov served as a deputy minister for foreign affairs of the Russian Federation in charge of relations with Asia-Pacific and central Asian countries between 1993 and 1996.
From 1996 to 2003, he served as Russian ambassador to Japan.