Russia and the countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf (GCC) have confirmed the unchanged course for the development of partnership, despite changes in the global economy as a result of Western policies, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday at a press conference following his participation in the GCC meeting.
"We confirmed the focus on the full development of our partnership, including under the new conditions that are emerging in the world economy in the context of the policies of our Western colleagues," he said. - "We emphasized the need to increase economic ties, humanitarian and investment cooperation and spoke about the necessity to intensify the work of the working groups and business councils, which have been created and were in principle in operation but took a pause for a while during the pandemic".
The Russian foreign minister drew attention to the fact that he had meetings with his counterparts from the member countries of this association on the margins of the GCC meeting. Yesterday we had detailed talks with the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia," he said. - "We noted a steady increase in trade turnover, which last year grew by almost 35%. The next meeting of the intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation is scheduled, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia are cooperating well, they have already absorbed $2.5 billion within the joint platform."
"Similar projects and platforms between RDIF and its foreign partners have been established and function successfully with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Kuwait," Lavrov continued. - "I had separate meetings with the foreign ministers of these countries today."
The minister also said that an agreement had been reached to accelerate agreement on a joint action plan between Russia and the GCC up to 2025.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS