The COVID-19 pandemic has affected bilateral trade between Israel and Russia, but the Jewish state sees its companies' determination to resume their business in Russia and believes that economic cooperation with Moscow will expand, charge d'affaires ad interim of Israel to Russia Yacov Livne told Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th July, 2020) The COVID-19 pandemic has affected bilateral trade between Israel and Russia, but the Jewish state sees its companies' determination to resume their business in Russia and believes that economic cooperation with Moscow will expand, charge d'affaires ad interim of Israel to Russia Yacov Livne told Sputnik.
According to the Israeli diplomat, his country expected a 5-7 percent decrease in its GDP this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"Although we do not have the full data yet, we can assume that this situation will also affect part of our trade with Russia," Livne said.
The diplomat, however, expressed the belief that Israel's international economic activity would quickly recover thanks to the nation's "strong and resilient economy."
"It is clear that there is a strong will in Israel and Russia to get back to business and we can already see that many Israeli companies are strengthening their abilities to continue the activity in Russia. We have no doubt that our close economic ties with Russia will continue to expand," Livne stressed.
Trade between Israel and Russia exceeded $5 billion for the second consecutive year in 2019, then-Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin said in January.
