TOMSK, Russia, April 27 (UPI) -- Germany and Russia aim to expand economic cooperation despite differences of opinion between both countries.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Thursday after a two-day meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Siberian city of Tomsk: "It was a very open and very intense talk... often with different opinions."
Merkel nevertheless said both countries would intensify economic cooperation, especially in the energy sector. Putin said he would support German investments in the Russian market.
German and Russian firms inked several deals in the wake of the meeting.
German chemicals company BASF and the state-controlled Russian energy giant swapped shares in a move that will hand the Germans the right to develop a gas field in Siberia, while Gazprom got additional shares of a German-Russian gas distribution joint venture.
"The agreement we have just signed demonstrates that Russia and Germany are able to build upon one another," Juergen Hambrecht, BASF's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Gazprom is trying to increase its stakes in the European energy market, and observers say German companies are looked at for building bridges into the market.
Companies from both countries work together on a natural gas pipeline project under the Baltic Sea, linking Russia and Germany.
Merkel said bilateral economic relations would stretch far beyond the energy sector, citing examples of rising bilateral trade in the aviation, medical and transportation sector, according to Deutsche Welle Online.
