RIGA, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Latvian-Russian intergovernmental commission, which after a four-year break met in Riga on Tuesday, agreed to step up cooperation in transport and ensure uninterrupted cargo traffic between the two neighbor countries, Latvian Transport Minister Uldis Augulis told reporters after the talks.
Augulis, who co-chairs the intergovernmental committee together with Russian Transport Minister Maksim Sokolov, indicated that despite the long break in the commission's work practical cooperation between Latvia and Russia has continued in areas like border control, transport, migration and culture.
As far as economic cooperation is concerned, Russia has always been an important partner, the Latvian minister said.
In addition to the agreement on uninterrupted cargo traffic across the Latvian- Russian border, the sides also intend to sign an accord on direct international rail cargo traffic by the end of this year. Augulis informed that Latvia has already approved the agreement and will sign it as soon as the Russian side is ready for that.
The intergovernmental commission also agreed on closer cooperation in using Russian and Latvian transport infrastructure for shipping Chinese freight to Europe.
Citing trade statistics, Russian Transport Minister Sokolov said at the news conference following the talks in Riga that economic exchange between Latvia and Russia has been resuming and developing and that the intergovernmental commission had agreed on further steps that have to be taken to facilitate this process.
The Latvian-Russian intergovernmental commission is a format for bilateral talks on economic, regional, transport and humanitarian cooperation. The panel's previous meeting took place in November 2013 in Moscow.
