FM: Russia, Arab economic cooperation growing

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergey Lavrov in Moscow, Russia on 29 December 2018 [Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency]

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said yesterday that economic cooperation between Russia and the Arab world is on the rise, explaining that as many as 400 investment projects worth $40 billion are currently being implemented by Russian and Arab companies.

Speaking at the Arabia Expo 2019 in Moscow, Lavrov said Russian banks are planning to invest nearly $25 billion in the Arab world.

The Russian foreign minister praised the economic trade relations between his country and the Arab world, pointing out that the trade volume with the Arab countries grew last year by eight per cent to reach $22 billion.

He added that there are large joint projects between Russia and the Arab world, including the Egyptian nuclear power plant, stressing that Moscow intends to continue strengthening its relations with the Arab world based on the principles of justice and equality.

This comes as the US cautions Egypt to stick with a pro-Western orientation and avoid edging too close to Russia, as Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi begins meetings in Washington.

READ: An Egyptian submarine?

Unless otherwise stated in the article above, this work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. What does that mean? For other permissions, please contact us.