Moscow sees noticeable boost in Russian-Portuguese relations

In the past few years Russian-Portuguese relations have become noticeably more active. Moscow and Lisbon are "conducting an intensive political dialogue, building up both bilateral cooperation and cooperation along Russia-European Union lines," RIA Novosti learned from Alexander Yakovenko, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, in connection with President Putin's forthcoming visit to Portugal on October 24th.

The Russian diplomat said that Moscow and Lisbon were also jointly working on expanding their cooperation in the trade, economic, cultural and military spheres.

Yakovenko said that last year trade between the two countries increased more than four-fold totalling 230.6 million dollars, including Russian export - around 210.7 million dollars and import - 19.9 million dollars.