GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th October, 2020) Italian businesses are looking at the Russian market as one that can provide many promising opportunities, Italy's foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, said on Wednesday, adding that Rome and Moscow must work to stimulate bilateral trade amid the negative impacts of the coronavirus disease pandemic.
"The pandemic has had grave consequences for both of our countries, from the point of view of economic and human losses. As for our turnover, we registered a drop for the first time after three consecutive years of growth," Di Maio said during talks with Russian Trade and Industry Minister Denis Manturov at the Russian-Italian Council on Economic, Industrial and Financial Cooperation in Moscow.
The minister noted that Italy sees many promising areas for cooperation between Russian and Italian business owners, in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, transport, agriculture, as well as start-ups and innovations.
"The objective of the Italian government is to strengthen bilateral relations with Russia that are already rather strong, as Russia is a fundamental partner for us at commercial and economic levels, as well as on energy," Di Maio said.
The Italian foreign minister said that the holding of a meeting between trade officials from Russia and Italy was a sign of hope for bilateral economic prospects.
"But even the fact that we are holding this session of the Council [the Russian-Italian Council on Economic, Industrial and Financial Cooperation] is a big sign of hope," Di Maio said.
Manturov said earlier in the day that Russian-Italian trade volumes had fallen by almost a quarter over the past seven months due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite this, the Russian trade and industry minister said that bilateral industrial cooperation was trending in a positive direction.
While in Moscow, Di Maio is also expected to hold talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on a range of bilateral and global issues.
