The Bahrain News Agency (BNA) and the Russian News Agency (ITAR-TASS) have signed today a cooperation agreement for the purpose of bilateral exchanging of news services between both agencies. The agreement was signed from the Bahraini side by BNA\'s director, Mr. Mohannad Suleiman, and from the Russian side by Mr. Sergey Mikhaelov the general director of the Russian News Agency (ITAR-TASS), in the presence of Minister of State for Information Affairs cum Government\'s official spokesperson, Mrs. Samira Ibrahim bin Rajab. On this occasion, the director of BNA said that the news cooperation agreement comes emanating from keenness on the part of the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) on consolidating media cooperation relations with various prestigious news agencies. This is the second such agreement signed by BNA within one week emanating from its keenness on transmitting the voice of Bahrain in various international languages so as to portray the Kingdom of Bahrain\'s accomplishments in various economic, socio-economic fields, etc., which have been achieved under the reign of HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. Mr Suleiman added that the signing of this agreement emanates from excellent friendly bilateral relations between the two countries, asserting the significant importance of the role undertaken by both news agencies - BNA and ITAR-TASS – in showcasing the solid historic bilateral friendly relations between Bahrain and Russia and their friendly peoples. The agreement has been signed as part of BNA\'s plans to increase its area of cooperation and to coordinate with Arab and international news agencies. Last week, BNA had signed a cooperation agreement with the Spanish News Agency (). This was preceded by similar memoranda of news exchanging and cooperation with the Middle East News Agency (MENA), the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA), the Jordanian News Agency (PETRA), the UAE News Agency (WAM). BNA has also increased its volume of cooperation with a number of news agencies on the sidelines of the meeting Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) held recently in Bahrain. BNA had also signed news memoranda with the Libyan, Mauritanian, Sudanese and Yemeni news agencies and intends to sign other memoranda with widely-circulating Arab and international news agencies, including the Lebanese National News Agency with which BNA intends to sign cooperation agreements with the Indian, Malaysian and Italian news agencies in the foreseeable future.