Moscow expects Senegal to release Oleg Naidyonov trawler soon - Foreign Ministry statement
MOSCOW. Jan 17 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry expects that the Senegalese authorities will release the Oleg Naidyonov trawler soon.
"We believe the Senegalese parliamentarians' constructive position will facilitate the soonest possible decision on releasing the Oleg Naidyonov trawler and its crew," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a commentary available on its website on Friday.
The ministry praised the outcomes of a meeting of a Senegalese parliament's working group.
The head of the Russian Federal Fishery Agency's (Rosrybolovstvo) mission in Dakar was invited to a meeting of the Senegalese parliamentary working group investigating the incident involving the Oleg Naidyonov. Chiefs of the Senegalese union of fishermen and sailors also took part in the meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Russia expressed the request on supporting the Russian Foreign Ministry's address to the Senegalese authorities at the soonest possible release of the trawler and its crew and on resolving the conflict situation in a legal way. The participants in the meeting also discussed a set of issues pertaining to cooperation in the fishing sector between Russia and Senegal. The parliamentarians stressed the importance of developing mutually beneficial Russian-Senegalese partnership and decided to invite the Senegalese fisheries minister to parliamentary hearings and ask President Macky Sall to assist in settling the conflict involving the Russian vessel," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.