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Russian transport minister to visit Cairo for talks on flights resumption

CAIRO, September 20. /TASS/. Russia’s Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov plans to negotiate the issue of aviation safety and resumption of passenger flights to Egypt next week, a source in Cairo familiar with the matter told TASS Tuesday.

"The Transport Minister of the Russian Federation will fly to Cairo in the period between 26 and 29 September as head of the Russian delegation for talks with the Egyptian side," he said.

Earlier Sokolov told journalists about the planned visit to the country in late September, after which a decision on resumption of flights between Russia and Egypt would be made as he said.

Air service with Egypt was suspended by Moscow in November 2015 after a terrorist attack on board an A321 from Russia’s air carrier Kogalymavia that was en route from Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt to St. Petersburg in Russia. The passenger airliner crashed over the Sinai Peninsula early on October 31. All 224 people onboard, including 217 passengers and the seven-member crew, were killed.

Negotiations on resuming flights between Russia and Egypt have been underway since late 2015.