Syria Actively Engaged in Constructing Power Plants With Russia

Damascus hopes to boost economic cooperation with Moscow.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — Syria is actively cooperating with Russia in the field of power plant construction, Syrian Minister of Electricity Imad Khamis told Sputnik.

"We hope that economic cooperation [with Russia], especially in the electricity sector, will rise to the level of political cooperation between the two friendly countries. We are working on this," Khamis said.

According to the minister, in the past two years, Syria has actively cooperated with the Russian Energy Ministry, both at an official level and through the private sector in Russia.

"We have signed agreements for the construction of new power plants in the next five years and an agreement on the construction of small stations, as well as a number of contracts for materials and equipment to work with our friends and experts in the field of maintenance of the stations, these agreements are working at the moment," Khamis added.

The country's electric power industry has been damaged by the ongoing armed conflicts in the country.

According to Khamis, even though the Syrian crisis had caused substantial damage to the country’s electric facilities, the industry has not been completely destroyed, as the Syrian authorities prioritized defending it against the militants.