Russia, Palestine to set out economic cooperation goals in Ramallah

The Russian-Palestinian intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation will convene for the first time in Ramallah later Monday. 

The two-day session will be co-chaired by Russia’s Labor and Social Protection Minister Maxim Topilin and Palestine’s Economy Minister Abir Awda, Sputnik reported.

"Participants of the meeting will identify further steps on how to develop Russian-Palestinian trade and economic cooperation," Topilin’s advisor Maria Isyanova told reporters.

According to the Russian Labor Ministry, delegates will also discuss cooperation in education, science, culture and social welfare. At the end of the meeting, they will sign a protocol that will lay down the roadmap for joint work, as well as a batch of memoranda of understanding.

Isyanova said that bilateral trade between Russia and Palestine has grown sixfold in the past five years to some $3.4 million in 2015