Al-Assad gets a message from Putin, agreements signed
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday at the Damascus al-Shaab palace received the minister of industry, sciences and technology and chairman of the joint ministerial committee for trade, economic and scientific cooperation in federal Russia Alexander Dondokov.
The visiting minister conveyed to President al-Assad a message from President Putin and the President asked him to convey reply messages and greetings to President Putin and the " friendly " people of Russia.
Talks dealt with prospects of future cooperation between the two countries and means of developing relations between the two countries, in line with the traditional relations already established between the two countries for a period of half a century.
Al-Assad expressed Syria's welcome to strengthening relations between Syria and Russia.
On Saturday, the Syrian- Russian joint committee started its works. The Syrian side was chaired by the minister of the economy and foreign trade Muhammad al-Imadi. The Russian minister also discussed with the Syrian minister of higher education Hassan Resheh the possibility of Russia's participation in establishing a " technology garden" in Syria to serve economic and industrial purposes.
On Sunday, the Russian minister and the Syrian minister of Finance Khaled al-Maheyni signed an agreement on " avoiding double taxation " between the two countries.
The Syrian and Russian sides stressed the need of developing cooperation in the areas of " energy, irrigation, land reclamation, oil and gas industries and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes." The two countries also agreed on " developing joint cooperation in the fields of oil and gas, scientific and technical cooperation and to convene the second session of the joint committee in Moscow by the end of the current years or in the first quarter of next year."
However, Damascus's relations with Moscow have witnessed a period of coolness after the dismembering of the Soviet Union in 1991 out of which the member states of the dormer Soviet Union inherited a debt of US $ 10 to 12 billions accumulated on Syria because of its imports of Russian weapons.
Later the two countries agreed to keep aside the question of debt and to proceed forward to strengthening bilateral relations in all fields while efforts are to continue to finding out a solution to the question of the debt. Among the proposed solutions is to cancel 80% of the debt and to pay the remaining in cash.
Diplomatic sources said it is expected that the Russian President will pay a visit to Damascus during the coming stage with the aim to strengthening bilateral cooperation and to play a greater role in the Middle East peace process.
