The Russian and Italian governments signed an agreement on rail transit of arms, ammunition, military equipment, military property and personnel via the Russian Federation territory in connection with Italian Armed Forces’ troops’ participation in the international efforts to stabilise and rebuild the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
The two governments also signed an executive protocol on procedures for implementing the May 25, 2006 agreement between the Russian Federation and the European Union on readmission.
Also signed were agreements on a bilateral partnership for modernisation, cooperation in the power sector, developing small and medium-sized businesses, and cooperation between the two countries’ postal services.
Mr Medvedev and Mr Berlusconi had a one-on-one meeting before the consultations began, discussing in detail the state of Russian-Italian relations and looking at a number of issues on the international agenda, in particular, the results of the recent Russia-NATO and OSCE summits, the upcoming Russia-EU summit in Brussels, and matters on the G20’s agenda.
That same day, Dmitry Medvedev, Silvio Berlusconi, and Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin inspected the new Sukhoi Superjet 100, a medium-range Russian aircraft. The airplane arrived in Sochi from Yakutsk as part of the current set of tests. The cockpit features Russian software and the latest aircraft flight control applications, as well as GPS and GLONASS systems.
The Sukhoi Superjet 100 is the newest Russian civilian aircraft that serves as an example of broad international cooperation. Over 30 major international aerospace companies together with vendors and suppliers of systems and various parts and components were involved in the project, including the Italian company Finmeccanica.
In August 2007, the Sukhoi Holding and Italian Alenia Aeronautica formed a SuperJet International joint venture to deal with marketing, sales and worldwide after-sales support for airplanes in Europe, the Mediterranean, North and South America, Africa, Oceania, and Japan.