Normalizing Eritrea-Ethiopia relations opens up opportunities for projects interesting for Russian business - Russian ambassador
MOSCOW. Sept 14 (Interfax) - The normalization of relations between Eritrea and Ethiopia opens up opportunities for lar-scale infrastructural projects, in which Russian companies could participate, Russia's Ambassador to Eritrea Azim Yarakhmedov told Interfax in an interview.
"The process of normalization between Addis Ababa and Asmara opens up broad opportunities for breakthrough steps in the context of tackling the tasks of economic integration in the Horn of Africa, including the implementation of projects to build new transport corridors, in which major Russian companies could take part," he said.
"We believe that upgrading existing port infrastructure and building new such infrastructure on the Red Sea coast could become a promising avenue for such a partnership," the ambassador said.
Russian companies are interested in delivering trucks, agricultural equipment, construction materials, equipment for the mining industry, and also desalination and purification systems, he said.
"Cooperation in the banking and finance sector, energy industry and mining industry of Eritrea has serious potential," the ambassador said.
It was reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his Eritrean counterpart in Sochi in late August that Russia and Eritrea were holding talks on creating a logistics hub at one of Eritrea's ports.