§ Mr. Llew SmithTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on his recent visit to the Commonwealth of Independent States.
§ Mr. HeseltineI visited Azerbaijan and Russia from 27 to 30 September, leading a team of 13 senior business men. In Azerbaijan I had high-level meetings with President Elchibey and his Government, supported BP's recent success in securing exclusive negotiating rights for the exploration and development of two potentially very large oilfields under the South Caspian sea, signed a joint declaration on economic co-operation and helped to pave the way for other companies to win further business.
In Russia, I met Vice-President Rutskoi, acting Prime Minister Gaidar and a number of other Ministers, particularly deputy Prime Minister Shokhin with whom I held the first meeting of a new steering committee on trade and investment. I signed the terms of reference of this committee and a joint declaration on economic co-operation. I discussed the question of appropriate guarantees and priorities for the Export Credit Guarantees Department cover which the Prime Minister recently announced that we would be making available to Russia.