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Russia and Italy have priority projects in aircraft building, tyre production — Lavrov

They include joint production and the advancement of "Sukhoi Superjet 100" to global markets, the production of Augusta-Westland helicopters in Russia and modernization of the Pirelli tyre production

MOSCOW, December 9 /TASS/. Russia and Italy should focus on what meets the interests of the two countries if they want to develop trade and economic cooperation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with the Italian media on Wednesday.

"We should start from what meets the interests of Russia and Italy. But naturally, pragmatism should prevail," Lavrov said.

"As far as the Italian business is concerned, I have never heard that anybody wants to leave our market," the Russian foreign minister said.

"Of course, there is the ruble devaluation and many other things…But such situations always open up additional opportunities. Despite falling trade, whose physical volumes, by the way, have dwindled much less than in cost measurement, the two countries continue implementing priority economic projects," Lavrov said.

"They include joint production and the advancement of "Sukhoi Superjet 100" to global markets; the production of Augusta-Westland helicopters in Russia; modernization of the Pirelli tyre production and a number of other promising directions," the Russian foreign minister went on to say.

According to Lavrov, the replacement of goods marked "made in Italy" by goods marked "made jointly with Italy" in the Russian market is also a promising area of Russian-Italian cooperation.