BUENOS AIRES (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd December, 2018) Russia and Argentina will work closer together in the fight against crime, and increase trade and investment. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday on the G20 margins.
"We have agreed to deepen coordination with Argentina in the fight against transnational gangs, including in cyberspace, and drug trafficking," he said at a press briefing.
Standing alongside Argentine leader Mauricio Macri, Putin praised fruitful cooperation between the two nations on the international area where their stances "converge or come very close."
A lot of attention at their talks was paid to economy, the Russian president added. Trade between the two grew by a fourth in January-September 2018 and is nearing the $1 trillion mark, he said.
"A hefty batch of bilateral intergovernmental deals and commercial contracts was been inked just now. This is a sign of a mutual intent to expand Russian-Argentine relations in all directions," he noted.
Russian Railways has volunteered to help build a 435-mile railroad to Vaca Muerta, a huge shale formation estimated to hold 308 trillion cubic feet of shale gas and over 16 billion barrels of shale oil.
Russian companies have been supplying machinery to six Argentine power plants and will take part in an auction to sell components to another six utilities.
Russia's major lender Gazprombank considers investing in a large port on the Parana River. A logistics hub, Putin said, will help cut the cost of transporting Argentine foods to Russia and make it easier to bring Russian petroleum products to Argentina and other South American markets.
