Crimean authorities are planning to send a regional delegation to Syria in June to discuss product supplies and attract students from the Arab country to the peninsula, Vladimir Konstantinov, chairman of the republic's State Council, told TASS on Wednesday.
"A working trip of the Russian interdepartmental delegation to the Syrian Arab Republic is planned for June 2023. During the trip, the Crimean delegation plans to continue working with <...> suppliers of Syrian products to deliver them to Russia. It is also planned to work on attracting Syrian students to study at the Crimean Federal University (CFU) named after V.I. Vernadsky, to develop previously reached agreements between CFU and University of Latakia and to establish links between CFU and University of Damascus. The work on creating a joint Crimean-Syrian shipping company will be continued", said Konstantinov.
He said that the delegation will include representatives of the Council of ministers of the Crimea, the Crimean permanent mission to the Russian President, CFU, the Crimean-Syrian "Commonwealth" trading house and the Nikitsky Botanical Garden.
Crimea and Syria are linked by partnership relations, in particular, in October 2018, a delegation of the Russian region led by the head of the republic Sergei Aksenov visited Damascus. The Syrian side made reciprocal visits to Simferopol and Yalta in different years. Agreements on trade and economic cooperation and cooperation in tourism were concluded, and meetings of the joint Russian-Syrian working group are being held.
Syria and Crimea are under sanctions pressure. After the 2014 referendum and the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia, Ukraine and Western states imposed a number of sanctions against Russia, Russian businessmen and politicians, as well as foreign visitors and company representatives visiting Crimea. As the head of Crimea Sergei Aksenov said earlier, the authorities of the peninsula and Syria overcame the sanctions regimes and found the tools to pay for the supply of goods within the cooperation framework.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: anjči/Creative Commons 2.0
Based on materials from TASS