Vladimir Putin and Prince Mohammed, the Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, will meeе in Moscow today. After Tuesday’s meeting with the Russian president, royal is due to head to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, Al Arabiya reported.
Both Moscow and Riyadh as the diplomatical players are doing their best to end the devastating armed conflict in Syria. Despite the failure of another round of Geneva talks last month, there are hopes that foreign powers involved in the war, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, as well as Turkey, Qatar and Iran, could eventually force a settlement.
Vladimir Putin and Prince Mohammed have already met – in China in September, during the G20 summit. The Tuesday’s their meeting will touch the issues of the Syrian conflict, situation on global oil markets. On Tuesday morning, the preliminary discussion on oil perspectives had the Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Saudi counterpart Khalid al-Falih.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s trip to Moscow follows the visit of Donald Trump in Riyadh. In past, businessman Trump had been critical of Washington’s friendly policies towards Saudi Arabia and its agreements to protect the kingdom. But his recent visit to Riyadh showed that the US President hopes Saudi Arabia would remain the closest friend of the USA in the Arab world.
