Riga mayor expresses eagerness to return to Moscow market
Xinhua, October 30, 2015 Adjust font size:
Riga wants to be the first to return to the Moscow market when the current crisis in EU-Russia relations is over, Nils Usakovs, mayor of the Latvian capital city, told reporters after a meeting with visiting Moscow Government Minister Sergei Cheryomin on Thursday.
Although relations between Latvia and Russia remain complicated, the crisis will end sometime, but in the meantime it is important to maintain good relations between the two neighboring countries' capitals, Riga and Moscow, the Riga mayor said.
"When the crisis is over, we will have to compete with other countries to reenter this market, and we want to be the first, to keep our leading position," the Riga mayor said.
He indicated that the current sanctions war between the EU and Russia has been hampering business exchange, including Russian investment.
He noted that before the crisis, Russians accounted for 30 percent all tourists visiting Riga, but that now their numbers had dropped sharply and that this drop was being compensated by tourists from Scandinavia and other countries.
As the Days of Moscow kicked off in Riga on Thursday, Usakovs met with a Russian delegation, including Moscow Government Minister Cheryomin, as well as Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov. Endit