On cooperation in DISTANCE EDUCATION between the United States and Russia as part of the activities of the Working Group on Agriculture Research, Education, and Extension of the Gore-Stepashin Commission.

Based on previous agreements between the Department of Personnel Policy and Education of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture and Food (MOAF RF), USDA/ARS and selected Land Grant Universities and in accordance with intergovernmental agreements between Russia and the USA, taking into account the will to strengthen friendship and promote cooperation between the organizations in education and training, the Working Group on Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension in cooperation with the ADEC Distance Education Consortium and the agriculture universities of the USA and Russia agrees to the following:

• An International Distance Education (DE) workshop to be held in September 1999 will be followed by a training program on DE methodology in either Moscow or the NW Region of Russia. ADEC with the University of Maryland as lead institution conduct the program that is to be organized in cooperation with the MOAF.
• ADEC with the University of Maryland as lead institution will collaborate with a consortium of Russian Agricultural Universities (Academies, Institutes) to establish a core DE group in Russia. An ADEC affiliation agreement with this consortium of Russian Universities and/or institutes will be explored.
• The Chairman and President of ADEC Distance Education Consortium of the U.S. will travel to Moscow in June 1999 to discuss the possibility of the Russian universities/institutes joining ADEC. In addition they will investigate the use of various electronic media in DE.
• The Department of Personnel Policy and Education of MOAF RF agrees to work with Novgorod State University to have them become an active member of the DE program and to have the Purdue/Maryland/Novgorod curriculum on Environmental Science and Policy form the core of a DE program.

All signatories of this agreement will apply for and seek funding, from appropriate sources, to implement the intent of this agreement.

As distance education collaborations increase, this agreement can be superceded with more specific and detailed agreements between the Universities (Academies, Institutes) of the two countries as mutually agreed upon.

This agreement becomes effective upon being signed by authorized representatives of both countries. This agreement will be for a period of 3 years through March 31, 2002 and will be reviewed as the above activities are nearing completion to determine whether or not the agreement should be extended and expanded.

The document is signed in Washington D.C. on March 23, 1999 in two copies in English and Russian.