Brazil hopes Russia to enter WTO in 2011

Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said on Sunday he hoped Russia would enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year. "Brazil and Russia are countries which develop fast from economic point of view, they rapidly recovered from the crisis. We expect economic growth in 2011 and Russia's entering to the WTO till the end of the year," Patriota told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during the meeting. The 150-member WTO is an international organization set up to liberalize global trade and regulate trade and political relations between its members. Russia, the only major economy not included in the organization, has been seeking membership in the WTO for about 18 years.