Putin, Morsi to meet on the sidelines of durban BRICS summit

Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet with his Egyptian counterpart Mohammed Morsi on the sidelines of the upcoming BRICS summit in Durban, South Africa, on March 26-27, Russia’s presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Moscow.as part of the Durban BRICS summit in South Africa.The two leaders will hold talks on “pressing regional issues, primarily the Middle East settlement and the crisis in Syria” as well as prospects for bilateral cooperation between Russia and Egypt, Ushakov said.He noted that this would be the first meeting Putin and Morsi, who have talked with each other only by phone so far.“Despite the complex sociopolitical processes in Egypt, mutually advantageous cooperation in all priority areas continues to develop,” Ushakov said.Bilateral trade turnover between Russia and Egypt has increased almost by 70 percent to 3.5 billion US dollars over the last two years.Putin and Morsi will also discuss prospects for resuming the work of the joint commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation, which last met in Cairo on March 10-11, 2010, and of the Russian-Egyptian Business Council created in August 2006.According to Usahkov, the two leaders will also discuss cooperation in the field of tourism. Although the flow of tourists to Egypt has dwindled considerably over the past two years, the number of Russians visiting that country annually is growing. Last year, about 2.5 million Russian tourists visited Egypt