Nigeria’s ambassador to the Russian Federation, Abdullahi Shehu, has pledged Nigeria’s commitment to renewing trade relations with Russia.

In an interview on Sunday, Mr Shehu said he was ensuring that Nigeria exported more goods to Russia.

He said one of his priorities since assuming office as Nigeria’s top envoy to Russia was engaging with businesses and investors in the European country to facilitate and boost trade relations between Russia and Nigeria.

Mr Shehu lamented what he described as the low volume of trade between Nigeria and Russia, saying that trade plunged further between the two countries following the outbreak of coronavirus in 2020.

The envoy said to address the low trade challenge, he had to consider areas of the Nigerian economy to focus on to ensure a balance of trade and increase export from Nigeria to Russia.

“We have had robust trade relations with Russia. At a time, our volume of trade was with the Russian Federation was highest, especially when the trading was more in the area of arms sales to Nigeria.

“Not long ago, some military hardware were purchased from Russia, and the volume of trade became relatively high.

“On their part, Russia exported manufactured and industrial products to Nigeria. On our part, our comparative advantage is to export unprocessed commodities to Russia.

“But we have to make these commodities to be competitive in the international market and with other options that the Russian market is looking up to from us to export to Russia.

“This is what we are building on but as it is now, the volume of trade is relatively low and compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr Shehu said he had started contacting relevant private sector organisations, including the Russian Chambers of Commerce so that Nigeria could identify areas of comparative advantage to boost its trade with Russia.

“But unfortunately, with the current crisis in Ukraine, every attention is focused on the crisis, and the development has affected trade between Russia and Nigeria.”

On bilateral relations between Nigeria and Russia, Mr Shehu said that both countries had sustained a long-standing relationship, dating back to the Soviet Union era.

He said Nigeria would never forget the support it received from Russia during the Nigerian civil war.

Asked if Russia would support Nigeria’s current fight against insecurity, Mr Shehu said, “Russia holds strongly to its policy of non-interference but will be willing to assist Nigeria on Nigeria’s request.

“Their position is that they will not interfere in your domestic affairs unless you invite them to come.

“At the time they assisted Nigeria during the civil war, it was Nigeria that requested assistance, and they provided the assistance.”

(NAN)