On January 30, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Eritrea Osman Saleh, who was in Moscow on a working visit.

While discussing practical issues of Russian-Eritrean cooperation, the parties reaffirmed bilateral resolve to continue to develop their trade, economic and cultural relations, including in mining, finance, banking and personnel training.

The ministers exchanged opinions on current international and regional issues, focusing on settling conflicts in Africa, in particular in the Horn of Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, Libya and South Sudan, as well as in the Middle East, Syria and Yemen. Mr Saleh expressed his appreciation for Russia’s efforts to facilitate a settlement in Syria and noted the encouraging results of the intra-Syrian meeting in Astana, Kazakhstan, on January 23.

The ministers expressed a shared opinion in favour of creating a broad coalition against international terrorism with the UN’s coordinating role and without double standards.

They pointed to the high level of political understanding between Russia and Eritrea and expressed readiness to continue to strengthen coordination at the UN and other respected international platforms.