Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad on Monday received a Russian delegation including senior economic officials and representatives of major companies from Russia, headed by Deputy Energy Minister Kirill Molodtsov.

Talks during the meeting touched on the strategic relation between Syria and Russia and the need to bolster it by developing economic and trade cooperation and expanding joint investments, particularly in the fields of petroleum, gas, phosphates, transport, pharmaceuticals, and water resources.

The two sides also stressed the need to speed up the process of rebuilding what terrorism had destroyed in Syria.

President al-Assad said that the achievements realized by the Syrian Arab Army with the support of friendly countries, mainly Russia, and the resulting return of security and stability to many areas in Syria has paved the way to restarting economic activity and beginning the reconstruction process.

His Excellency noted that it’s natural for the countries that supported the Syrian people in their war against terrorism to take part in rebuilding Syria.

For his part, Molodtsov said that participating in rebuilding Syria is one of the priorities of many Russian companies, underlining the need to benefit from the huge opportunities in this field to serve the interests of the countries and their peoples.

The Deputy Minister asserted that Russia’s people, leadership, and government are determined to continue providing all sorts of support to the Syrian people in the face of the terrorist war until the final goal of eliminating terrorism completely across the entirety of Syria is achieved.

Hazem Sabbagh