I would like to once again thank our Tunisian friends for the invitation and the time devoted to our delegation.

I have had in-depth and candid talks with my colleague and friend, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad Nabil Ammar. I was just received by President Kais Saied of the Republic of Tunisia.

Our countries are bound by traditional ties of friendship and cooperation, a tradition that began many decades ago. In the early 20th century, Russian sailors from the Black Sea Fleet found refuge in the Tunisian city of Bizerte. The memory of those events is preserved not only by the descendants of those Russian expatriates, but also by many of our Tunisian friends. During the meeting with President Kais Saied, we reminisced about historical events that bind us and relations between Tunisia and the Soviet Union. We agreed to use this foundation to build an even more advanced partnership to meet our countries and peoples’ interests.

We welcome President Kais Saied's efforts to reform the political system. Significant results have been achieved. A couple of years ago, a referendum took place, and parliamentary elections were held in 2023. High-stakes local elections are scheduled to be held in the coming days. They will lay the groundwork for forming the second chamber of the parliament.

We are grateful for the information about the political reforms provided by our Tunisian friends. The reforms will help the Tunisian people and public authorities achieve socioeconomic and other forms of progress. All of this promotes Russia-Tunisia relations. In the first nine months of 2023, trade tripled to $1.5 billion dollars. We agreed to further expand our interaction in other areas based on existing plans, among others.

This includes the agricultural sector (there’s interest in Russian grain imports) and energy, including nuclear energy. We agreed to expedite the entry into force of the agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

Our mutual interest in advancing cooperation in high-tech industries, particularly in space exploration, is on the rise. Not long ago, our carrier launched Tunisia's first communications satellite into orbit. The second satellite will be launched next year. Russian and Tunisian companies have agreed to jointly produce five more orbital vehicles.

We agreed that cooperation in the public health sector holds promise, especially considering that Tunisia was among the first countries to certify the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.

The Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, and Scientific and Technical Cooperation will address these and many other promising areas of collaboration. Its next meeting will be held in the first quarter of 2024 in Moscow.

We covered in detail the situation in the Middle East, with particular focus on Gaza and surrounding areas. We both believe that violence must be stopped and proper conditions must be created for addressing the glaring humanitarian issues.

In the long term, in order to rule out the possibility of similar crises recurring, it is essential to solve the issue of establishing a Palestinian state in full compliance with the existing resolutions of the UN Security Council once and for all.

Russia, Tunisia, and members of the League of Arab States and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are committed to consistently and persistently working towards creating proper conditions for implementing the above resolutions.

It appears that our Western colleagues are not overly inclined to make efforts in the interest of establishing a Palestinian state. The United States, for instance, has repeatedly blocked a simple resolution currently under discussion in the Security Council that calls for a ceasefire and humanitarian assistance. Attempts are being made to drown the issue of creating the Palestinian state in numerous questionable initiatives to convene one conference after another based on principles that are at odds with the principles laid out in the UN Security Council resolutions.

We appreciate the assessments of the situation in neighbouring Libya provided by our Tunisian counterparts. A deep crisis triggered by the NATO aggression in 2011 has persisted in that country for over a decade now. Russia and Tunisia have a stake in initiating a serious and consistent political process involving all political forces in Libyan society.

In turn, we provided an update about the events in and around Ukraine which we regularly share with our Tunisian friends. We value Tunisia's objective and balanced position on Ukraine during discussions that the West is trying to promote at the UN and other platforms.

We have never shied away from such discussions, and we have important points to make. We cite specific facts showing how long the West has been planning to use Ukraine to create threats to the security of the Russian state and to discriminate against Russians in Ukraine. The United States and its allies are inconvenienced by these facts. They are not ready to start a serious discussion and are trying to initiate discussions in order to skew the agenda of every international entity to fit the focus on Ukraine.

The developing countries are becoming increasingly aware of the true intentions of the West in terms of its pursuit of maintaining dominance in international affairs. Our meetings in Marrakech yesterday during the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum confirmed this.

Today, we agreed with our Tunisian friends to continue close coordination on international and regional issues, including within the UN, as well as in the context of cooperation between Russia and the League of Arab States.