MOSCOW, October 15./TASS/. Moscow sees a growing interest in the Russian market among the Israeli business circles, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an article in Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily on Friday, timed to mark the 30th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between Russia and Israel.
"Practical bilateral cooperation has sizable potentials," the top diplomat said. "A number of joint projects are being successfully put into practice. Many initiatives have received support from the president of the Russian Federation and the prime minister of the State of Israel," Lavrov stressed.
"The interest of the Israeli business circles in entering the Russian market keeps growing," he said. Mutually advantageous cooperation of the two countries has withstood the test of time and continues to actively develop along all trajectories, the foreign minister stressed. With this in view, Lavrov noted that over the recent decades, Moscow and Tel Aviv have accumulated sizable experience of versatile cooperation on such fronts as the economy, science and technologies, healthcare and education. "Over 20 intergovernmental agreements in effect show how busy is the bilateral agenda," he added.
"Despite the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, trade between Russia and Israel declined by a modest 3.9% in 2020, while in January-July of this year it grew by 51.8% year-on-year," the minister stressed. He pointed to a key coordinating role in the joint efforts of the Joint Russian-Israeli Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation set up in 1994. "We are interested in seeing it restore the activity in full as soon as possible," Lavrov said.
He also stressed a special role of humanitarian contacts for the strengthening of ties between the countries and ensuring their stability and continuity. "We value a high level of mutual understanding between the peoples of Russia and Israel, linked by shared historical memory and cross-cultural interaction," Lavrov added. "It is gratifying that this thread knowing no geographic boundaries is only getting stronger over the time," the top diplomat stressed.
"We hope that as the sanitary-epidemiological situation improves, we will be able to restore mutual flows of tourists. Russia is traditionally among the trio of the countries, leading as to the number of tourists visiting Israel," he summed up.