"Our visit to the Syrian Arab Republic has been fruitful, and in the near future we are waiting for serious results from the meetings that took place there." This was stated at the press conference by Foreign Minister of RA  Daur Kove, summing up the results of the visit of the Abkhazian delegation to Syria.

The press conference was also attended by the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Abkhazia Gennady Gaguliya and Minister of Economy Adgur Ardzinba.

D. Cove told about the meetings held at the official level during the visit. The delegation of Abkhazia met with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Syrian Arab Republic Imad Khamis, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem and Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Mohammed Samer Khalil.

"The meetings discussed the issues of establishing and developing mutual relations in all areas of bilateral cooperation. A mutual desire was expressed to build full-fledged bilateral interstate relations, " D. Cove said.

At the same time, he noted that while the issue of recognition of Abkhazia by Syria is not worth it. "Recognition is in the future," Cove believes.

He told reporters that he invited the government delegation of Syria on behalf of the leadership of Abkhazia to visit Abkhazia on a return visit.

In his turn, Minister of Economy Adgur Ardzinba noted that despite a long war, the economy and agriculture of Syria are developing, and export indicators are growing year by year.

The Syrians were interested in our ports and the transit of products through our territory, and we were interested in the possibility of creating industries using Syrian raw materials, especially since the distance between Syria and Abkhazia is not a problem. The Minister of Economy also said that the parties designated responsible persons who will be engaged in detailed elaboration of the cooperation program.

Ardzinba noted that the war in Syria will soon end anyway, and the EU is likely to impose sanctions against Syria. In this regard, the country will have to reorient itself to the Russian and Middle Eastern markets. It is quite realistic to develop economic relations with Abkhazia.

"Our task is to create conditions for private business, open trading houses and solve the issue of duty-free trade between our countries. Even today in Syria, through the CCI, we are ready to buy our wine. There are other interesting proposals, "Ardzinba said.

He stressed that Syrian products - textiles and food products - of European level, and many other goods are very high quality and cheaper than Turkish ones.

According to CCI President Gennady Gaguliya, the main event of this visit was that for the first time in all years of the Chamber's participation in various international exhibitions, the flag of Abkhazia was raised on a par with the flags of all other participating countries.

Gaguliya recalled that the invitation to participate in the fair was preceded by serious work. The first attempts to sign contracts with the Chambers of Commerce of Syria CCI RA took another 9 years ago, but then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Syria refused this. And only in 2015 it was possible to sign an agreement on cooperation with the Union of Exporters of Syria and the Chamber of Commerce of Damascus.

The President of the CCI also recalled that in 2016 it was planned to invite Syrian businessmen to take part in a special exhibition on which their goods would be presented, but the internal military situation did not allow this project to be implemented.

As for Abkhazia's participation in the Damascus International Fair, the Abkhazian pavilion aroused great interest, both among Syrian officials and attracted the largest number of visitors to the exhibition.

"Russian colleagues were surprised by such interest in our republic. In response, we joked that the greatness of the country does not depend on its size, "Gaguliya said.

According to him, despite the fact that Syria is a Muslim country, our wine, as well as jams and ajika caused great interest among visitors. "And the Abkhazian cheese was generally perceived as a delicacy. Many people wanted to buy all this, in large batches, "Gaguliya noted.

He also stressed that the Abkhazian pavilion continues its work, despite the fact that the delegation has already left. The exhibition, which opened on August 16, will last until August 26.

"The fact that our flag was raised at the international fair in Damascus is a direct merit of the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Gennady Gaguliya. Thanks to his professionalism, our pavilion caused a furore among visitors and attracted close attention of the press, "Daur Cove said.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs highly assessed the activities of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Abkhazia. According to him, the leadership of the CCI for many years is working with organizations from different countries for the future.