MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Russia and Tunisia are currently holding an intergovernmental commission’s meeting in Moscow to discuss prospects of developing a long lasting, strategic partnership between the two countries, Tunisian minister of trade told Sputnik.
"Our agenda for this joint commission’s meeting will include discussions on ways of developing a lasting, strategic and mutually beneficial partnership," Mohsen Hassen said, adding that Russia and Tunisia have been developing ties in a number of spheres, including tourism, trade and culture.
According to the Minister, in 2015 bilateral trade between two countries reached $1.5 billion and to a large extend it was in favor of Russia.
"On our side, we would like to boost our exports to Russia striking a balance between our exports and imports as the volume of trade between our countries does not reflect the true potential of bilateral cooperation " he noted.
Hassen reminded that earlier in March, two countries held political consultations between on the Foreign Ministers’ level. Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui told Sputnik earlier that Tunis intends to sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the strategic partnership and cooperation with Russia by the end of March.
Earlier in March, the Russian Foreign Ministry's spokeswoman Maria Zakharova also expressed hope that the intergovernmental commission's meeting to "significantly improve" the Russia-Tunisia economic cooperation indicators.
