Public Remarks
Remarks at the Boeing/VSMPO-AVISMA Contract Signing
William J. Burns, U.S. Ambassador to Russia
Interfax Newsagency, December 27, 2007
It's a pleasure to be here to witness Boeing and Verknaya Salda finalize their contract on supplying titanium products through 2015. Congratulations to you all.
With only 4 days left remaining in the year -- this year of our 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Russia – it is time to look ahead to our third century of cooperation. In no areas is this cooperation expanding faster than in the area of trade and investment which is rapidly becoming a genuine two-way street. In some 40 trips around the country over the last couple of years, from Kaliningrad to Chukotka, I have seen the benefits of U.S. and Russian companies working together.
Boeing's activities in Russia are a powerful example. Its sales and services, design work, and product purchases provides well-paying, high-skilled jobs in both the United States and Russia. The high caliber of its Russian employees and their day-today engagement with their American counterparts advances aerospace design. Its long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships are a major contribution to the innovative, knowledge-based economy that both countries seek. In industrial patents and processes jointly developed with Russian counterparts, including VSMPO, it successfully protects the intellectual property that so important to cutting-edge technology.
The global economy thrives on openness and connections between nations. The impressive growth in trade between the United States and Russia, fueled by business activities such as this, will have world-wide benefits for generations to come.
It's good to be a part of it.
Thank you.