OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2010. RF President Dmitry Medvedev has expressed satisfaction with the opportunity to get acquainted with new Australian Prime-Minister Julia Gillard. During the meeting with the Head of Australian Government the Russian leader noted: “I am pleased with the opportunity to get acquainted with you. We’ve had active meetings and consultations with your predecessor. It meets our interests.”

D. Medvedev said: “Today there is a nice opportunity to open a new page in our relationship – to exchange ratifications on the peaceful atom agreement, which has previously been conformed and accepted. Perhaps, the exchange of ratifications is not quite a recognized diplomatic procedure, especially in Seoul, but it looks really nice.” In response the Australian Prime-Minister stressed that the ratifications’ exchange took the relationship to the new level. The Russian President added that at the moment one should not worry about cooperation in the peaceful atom as it had a solid legal framework.

According to the information, provided to journalists by one of Russian delegation members, the question is about the exchange of notes; Russia and Australia have completed intergovernmental procedures concerning commencement of the agreement on cooperation in the sphere of nuclear energy peaceful use of September 7, 2010.

On July 1 the RF President signed the Federal law “On Ratification of Agreement between Russian Federation and Australian Governments on Cooperation in the sphere of Nuclear Energy Peaceful Use”. The Federal law provides ratification of the agreement, signed in Sidney on September 7, 2007. The agreement is aimed at extending and strengthening of the bilateral cooperation in the sphere of nuclear energy peaceful use. It formalizes the opportunity of use in the RF of Australian nuclear materials after their processing at Russian enterprises.