Russia, Sri Lanka discuss issues of trade and economic cooperation

Russia and Sri Lanka discussed ways to increase bilateral cooperation at an intergovernmental commission meeting held in Moscow.

The Russian Federation and Sri Lanka held the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation on 12 February.

The Russian delegation was headed by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation - Head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries, the chairman of the Russian part of the Commission Ilya Shestakov while the Lankan delegation was headed by the Deputy Industry and Trade Minister and Chairman of the Commission T.M.K.B. Tennakoon.

During the plenary meeting, the two sides noted the positive dynamics of trade and economic cooperation between Russia and Sri Lanka, and stressed the interest in increasing mutual trade turnover in the coming years.

In particular, the parties discussed issues of cooperation in such priority areas as agriculture, including deliveries of Russian grain to the Sri Lankan market, the tea trade, fisheries, energy, telecommunications, tourism, and chemical production, delivery of Russian civil helicopter and aircraft to Sri Lanka.

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor) and the Sri Lanka Department of Fisheries agreed to continue and strengthen cooperation on security in mutual supplies of products of animal origin, including fish.

“The launch of the Intergovernmental Commission mechanism held today will allow us to increase the effectiveness of bilateral trade-economic and scientific-technical cooperation by transferring it on a systematic basis,” Russian minister Ilya Shestakov said following the meeting.

He said the two sides agreed that the bilateral cooperation in the economic sphere requires acceleration.