Lavrov to Meet Mauritanian President, Foreign Minister During First Visit to Country

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - During his visit to Mauritania, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold talks with the President of the Republic, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, and with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Affairs of Mauritanians Abroad, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"On 7 to 8 February, Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov will pay a working visit to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (IRM). Meetings are scheduled with IRM President Mohamed Ould Sheikh El Ghazouani and talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Affairs of Mauritanians Abroad, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug. This is the first time a Russian foreign minister has visited Mauritania since the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations in 1964," the statement says.

"During the talks between Lavrov and Merzoug, it is planned to hold a thorough exchange of views on topical issues on the international and regional agenda — in particular, on the situation in North Africa and the Middle East, in the Sahara-Sahel region, the state of affairs in the Western Sahara and Middle East settlement, the situation in and around Syria, as well as on other subjects of mutual interest," the foreign ministry said.

The ministry emphasized that special attention would be paid to bilateral relations, primarily to development of cooperation in the field of marine fisheries, including in the context of ensuring more favorable working conditions for Russian trawlers in Mauritania's exclusive economic zone.

"We also intend to substantively discuss other issues of intensifying trade and economic cooperation with Mauritania, and outline new promising areas for building mutually beneficial business cooperation," Russia's Foreign Ministry added.

Lavrov will also visit Sudan next as part of his African tour.

Sea fishing is one of the areas of cooperation between Russia and Mauritania. In 2003, an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the field of marine fisheries was signed in Moscow.

The coastal waters of Mauritania, located on the Atlantic coast, abound in fish (total stocks are estimated at 4-5 million tons), more than 500,000 tons of fish are caught annually and about half are exported to Spain, Italy and Japan.

The Mauritanian ambassador said earlier that his country is happy for the Russian fleet to "fish in sufficient volume" in his country's waters. Russia and Mauritania also plan to strengthen scientific and technical cooperation in the fishing industry.

Mauritania also has large deposits of iron ore (8 billion tons, up to 12 million tons are mined annually, 90 percent of which is exported to Western Europe) and copper (32 million tons), deposits of gypsum (4 billion tons), rock salt, and phosphates . The national income consists mainly of exports of mining products (up to 82.5 percent of exports) – mostly iron ore – and seafood (17 percent).

In 2021, Moscow and Nouakchott signed an agreement on military cooperation. Russian Deputy Minister of Defense Alexander Fomin and Mauritania's Minister of National Defense, Hanana Ould Sidi, expressed their readiness to begin the practical implementation of the agreement as soon as possible.