Russia, SADC sign memorandum of cooperation

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Executive Secretary of the South African Development Community (SADC) Prega Ramsamy signed a memorandum on mutual understanding and cooperation in Moscow on Monday.

"The signed memorandum is a profound and capacious format of cooperation and gives an opportunity of interaction in all spheres," official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko said.

According to him, this concerns both the development of political dialogue and cooperation in trade and economic, scientific-technical, educational, cultural, energy, agricultural spheres and the spheres of prospecting and exploitation of mineral resources.

The South African Development Community founded in 1980 unites 13 countries of this African region with the total population of 200 million people. The gross domestic product of the SADC member-states is estimated at 180 billion US dollars.