WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- Russia's transport minister visited Washington this weekend to boost air security cooperation between the two nations.
According to a report from the RIA Novosti news agency Sunday, prospects look good for increased cooperation on flight safety standards and cooperating on the volume of air traffic over Russian territory.
Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin told RIA Novosti Saturday that the Bush administration had requested Moscow's permission to boost the number of scheduled airline flights by U.S. carriers on routes flying over Russian territory.
RIA Novosti said Levitin had paid a weekend "two-day visit to the United States to discuss air traffic and transport security cooperation, as well as the development of Russian transport infrastructure."
"The U.S. side has asked us to increase the number of flights along the crosspolar route by almost 20 percent," Levitin said according to the report.
The Russian transport minster was favorable to the American proposal and described it as being in Russia's interest too, the report said.
Earlier Saturday, Levitin also pledged to upgrade the flight safety standards of Russian civilian aviation to bring it up to international norms.
"Flight safety is of great importance to us. We realize that we can only achieve high safety standards if our flight safety regulations are harmonized with those that exist in other countries," he said.
During his visit, Levitin also "met with heads of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, and attended a session of the American-Russian Business Council," RIA Novosti said.
