OREANDA-NEWS. May 23, 2012. Russia and Sri Lanka have agreed to increase the number of flights to five per week, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the talks with his Sri Lankan counterpart G.M. Peiris on Wednesday.

 The Russian diplomat highlighted that the main result of the talks is that the two countries agreed to deepen relations in all directions.

“The key areas in our relations are hydrocarbon development, military and technical cooperation, road and transport infrastructure and, of course, tourism,” Lavrov said.

“Over the past year the number of Russian tourists wishing to visit Sri Lanka increased four-fold,” he said. “I hope that there will be much more tourists as we’d agreed to increase the number of flights to five per week.”

G.M. Peiris said in turn that it is high time to focus on economic cooperation establishing more official business relations.

Representatives of Russia’s gas giant Gazprom that actively carries out projects in Sri Lanka plan to visit the country to discuss cooperation in the oil and gas sectors.

Summing up the results of talks with Lavrov Peiris expressed confidence that “the meeting will give an opportunity to create a stronger base in relations between Russia and Sri Lanka than the current one.”