The foreign participants of SPIEF 2026 highly appreciated the level of organization of the forum

Foreign participants of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026) on June 3, in an interview with Izvestia, highly appreciated the level of organization of the forum.

Asif Iqbal, President of the Indian Economic and Trade Organization, noted the large number of Russian-made robots and unmanned technologies at the site. According to him, Indian companies are already holding meetings with the Russian side to sign agreements on cooperation in the field of drone production in India.

Mohamed Ali Huertani, Director General of the Tunisian-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in turn, called the exhibition "incredible", noting the scale and variety of stands.

"I've been here for an hour now, and I'll need at least all the time allotted to inspect the exhibition to explore all the stands. As I see it, this is something incredible and unimaginable," he said.

The head of the Nigerian company Iris Group, Oluwaseun Toup, Jeremiah Adeniran, stressed that Russia is one of the friendliest countries he has visited. He added that the idea of the Russian Federation's unfriendliness is a lie.

"I like that Russians are sincere people. They are very honest and principled, no nonsense," said the head of the Iris Group.

Khalid Al Marzouki, Vice President of the KEZAD Free Economic Zone in Abu Dhabi, said that his organization offers Russian companies various types of ready-made modules to quickly enter the UAE markets.

"There is a ready—made structure for the food industry, there is one focused on medium and large—scale production, there is one mainly focused on logistics, and some of them on light industry," he said.

Daryl Tan, a representative of Impact of Asia in Singapore, noted that he expects to strengthen cooperation between Russia, Southeast Asian countries and China. At the same time, Tan's colleague Razali Bin Ramli stressed that he considers SPIEF as an effective platform for finding new contacts and exploring investment opportunities in the Russian market.

Senjaya Mulia, a representative of the ASEAN Youth Organization, said that he arrived at the forum in search of new business opportunities and educational projects in the youth sphere. Assef Ravi, a representative of the Indian IT company Saboo, said that he had come to the forum in search of new investment partners. According to him, the work on the site is going quite well.

Contract time: deals worth 6.5 trillion may be concluded at SPIEF 2026

The amount will be comparable to last year's amount against the background of high rates — it is the issues of business growth that will become the main topics of discussion.

On the same day, Nelson Kumaga, a participant of SPIEF 2026 from the Republic of Ghana, performed the song "Mother Earth" in Russian. The guest from West Africa showed that he has not only good vocal skills, but also knowledge of a foreign language for him.

SPIEF 2026 visitors are greeted by robots in a business suit and fancy dress. They go out onto the event grounds, wave and try to keep up a conversation with the guests. In the Izvestia footage, one of the robots appeared in a black suit with a red tie, and the other in a female image with a bag on his shoulder.