BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:40 P.M.) – Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov confirmed, during a joint press conference on Monday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem in the Syrian capital, that Syria and Russia have diplomatic relations in various fields and work is underway to strengthen them, indicating that the Russian delegation held constructive talks with the new Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous.
Borisov said, “Moscow handed Damascus last July a Russian project on expanding trade and economic cooperation between the two countries, indicating that the new agreement between Syria and Russia includes more than 40 new projects in the energy sector reconstruction, a number of hydroelectric power stations and the extraction of oil from the sea.”
The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also indicated that “a work contract was signed for a Russian company to explore and extract oil and gas off the Syrian coast,” expressing his hope for “signing a trade agreement with the Syrian government during his next visit to Damascus next December.”
The Russian official indicated that “most of the areas rich in oil and gas are outside the control of the Syrian government, which prevents it from trading in oil, given that it is an important source of revenue.
