Euroasian Jewish News

Dialogue with Russia more intense now, says Israeli envoy

Russia and Israel have been brought closer together during the pandemic and are now cooperating closely to mitigate the fallout from the crisis, Charge d'Affaires ad interim of Israel to Russia Yacov Livne told an online briefing Wednesday.

"I must say that the current crisis which we are all going through together in Israel and Russia brought our countries closer and made our dialogue more intense, because we are all facing the same challenges. These challenges are global and we need to address them on the national level, however international cooperation is just as important as well as the joint work between Israel and Russia," he noted.

The diplomat stressed that Russia and Israel are cooperating closely to overcome the ramifications of the pandemic and are engaged in open and frequent discussions to find ways to mitigate them. In particular, he continued, this topic is looked at by presidents and foreign ministers. "This issue is prevalent all the time in our dialogue simply because it is the most complicated challenge to our societies. We should liaise to look for ways out of this crisis," Livne underlined.

According to the envoy, the Israeli embassy in Moscow is receiving "full, utmost friendly and professional support from Russian colleagues, be it the Foreign Ministry or all other agencies." "I must laud the cooperation of our Russian colleagues, attentive and most positive treatment of the Russian authorities. I also want to point out the deep understanding of this new situation that we find ourselves in," he added.

"It is in this new crisis situation that we, as an embassy, deem important the support of and cooperation with our Russian colleagues, and we can wholeheartedly thank them for it," Livne concluded.

TASS