Egypt and Russia intend to increase the share of settlements in national currencies, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry announced on Tuesday speaking at a joint press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"We have long been working on building proper arrangements that will allow us, in the spirit of greater sovereignty, to use them [national currencies] in our trading activities," he said, adding "We plan to expand the volume of transactions in these currencies."

The minister also added that the parties still have a series of consultations on this issue and both states are aimed at further work in this direction.

He also said that the Egyptian authorities expect supplies of Russian grain to continue and be increased. "Russia is one of the key grain suppliers to the global market. This is one of our staple food products, and we expect its supplies to continue," he said. "We aim not only to maintain the current pace and volume of supplies, but also to further increase them, as well as to expand the nomenclature of trade turnover in other directions," the minister noted.

Shoukry also focused on the growth of trade turnover between Russia and Egypt, which roughly equaled $6 bln in 2022, adding that the parties would be searching for new directions to expand economic cooperation.