MOSCOW, March 16. Russia will open a Consulate General in Hurghada this year. This was stated by Minister of foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Lavrov following meeting with the head of Egyptian foreign Minister Sameh shoukry.
In addition, according to him, Russia and Egypt have agreed to solve the problem of flight connections in the shortest possible time.
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“We raised the issue about the resumption of direct air service between our countries in order to help to increase tourist exchange, the volume of which decreased for obvious reasons, the Minister said. – Agreed to decide the issue of resumption of flights as soon as possible while ensuring high security standards for Russian citizens. We appreciate those contacts, which were held and are continuing between civil aviation authorities and other competent authorities of Russia and Egypt on the completion of these procedures, which will allow as soon as possible to resume direct air links”.
“Meanwhile, the Russian side is actively working on opening a General Consulate in Hurghada – said Lavrov. It will be important for the further development of tourist relations. And we will open this Consulate General in the current year”.
Lavrov stressed that Russia is interested in “tourist destination, which was probably the most popular among Russians, remained the same”, and that “all the problems that have arisen in connection with the terrorist act were resolved as soon as possible”. “It depends on how technical experts will be finalizing the approaches that are already approved by both parties, but you need to put it into practical language for those procedures that are agreed at the moment,” added the Russian Minister.
“We confirmed our satisfaction with the positive development that is happening in Egypt,” said foreign Minister also. He recalled that last year the country held parliamentary elections, which “has successfully completed the political process in Egypt.”
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“We noted substantial progress on a number of strategic areas of cooperation – the construction of nuclear power plants in Egypt, the creation of a Russian industrial zone projects in the field of civil aviation, railway infrastructure, – said the Minister. – Resumed inter-parliamentary relations, following his visit to Egypt in January 2016 speaker of the state Duma. An agreement was reached to create a “friendship group” in our parliaments”.
Previously in Association of tour operators of Russia (ATOR) has expressed hope that the sale of tours to Egypt will resume by early spring and summer season. “A lot of positive information on the subject of future discovery of Egypt: we see statements by officials, we see the desire of airlines to obtain slots for future flights, many tourists deposited money in Egypt, said the Vice-President of the Association Dmitry Gorin”. – So we, of course, are optimists, and hope that with the beginning of the spring-summer season of Egypt will be opened. At least the Egyptian side doing everything for this, including increases security”.
Accident of Russian plane
The number of tourists from Russia to Egypt was suspended after the crash on 31 October 2015 the plane of the Russian airline “Kogalymavia”, flying from Sharm El Sheikh to St. Petersburg. The plane was carrying 217 passengers and seven crew members, none survived.
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In November the head of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the cause of the crash was a terrorist attack, carried out using an improvised explosive device with power up to 1 kg in a trotyl equivalent.
As was stated by the Minister of tourism of Egypt Hisham Zaazou, the tourism sector of a country is the most serious in the last 20 years the losses after the disaster, the industry monthly loses 2.2 billion Egyptian pounds ($283 million). In addition, according to him, during this time in resort towns were closed on 25 hotels in Hurghada, 14 and 11 in the South Sinai.
In 70 hotels occupancy rate fell to zero, however they have not yet closed.
