LE HAVRE /France/, June 24. /TASS/. Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has reached an agreement with his French counterpart Edouard Philippe to expand bilateral cooperation more actively.

"We focused on bilateral cooperation. That cooperation cannot be taken out of the context of the relationship with the European Union, yet despite the challenging, mildly speaking, period of the relationship with the European Union it is important to make sure that our ties, the relations between Russia and France continue developing," Medvedev told a press conference following the talks with the French PM. He added that the sides "agreed that it is necessary to act more actively, agreed to look for new opportunities, including cooperation in new areas, it is necessary to find ways to use all cooperation formats."

Speaking about economic ties, Medvedev said that "there has been a decent surge in trade turnover over the past year, though the first three months of 2019 have seen another dynamics." PM noted that he expects the present talks to help improve the situation, saying that "today France is the seventh-biggest investor in the Russian economy." He considers it possible to improve that indicator since "French entrepreneurs are increasingly interested in operations on the Russian market." Medvedev also emphasized that Moscow appreciates that interest and expects the number of joint projects to rise.

He mentioned energy as an example of successful cooperation, saying that cooperation in that area is "beneficial for all." "We have good projects in the field of industrial cooperation, in the field of aircraft manufacturing," Medvedev said, adding that the Russian side would support the projects developed by Renault on the country’s territory. PM also referred to energy efficiency, climate issues, technologies, digital development and artificial intellect as promising areas.