Russian President Vladimir Putin will take part in a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand on Friday, the main day, and will also hold bilateral meetings with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan leader Ilham Aliyev.
The Russian president is expected to talk to Russian reporters at the end of all events.
Putin is visiting Samarkand on September 15-16. On Thursday, he has already held talks with his counterparts from Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov, Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov, Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif, Chinese President Xi Jinping and participated in the trilateral summit Russia-Mongolia-China.
Meeting with Modi
The Russian president will begin Friday's series of meetings with bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The previous time the two leaders met in person was in December 2021, during Putin's visit to New Delhi.
In Samarkand, they intend to discuss the promotion of a particularly privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India. First of all, it is planned to consider steps to increase mutual commodity flows, saturation of the Indian market with Russian fertilizers, ensuring mutual food supplies.
Putin and Modi will exchange views on international problems. According to the Kremlin, they may discuss the issues of strategic stability, the situation in the Asia-Pacific region, cooperation within the UN, G20, SCO and BRICS. According to Yuri Ushakov, assistant to the Russian president, this is important because in December, India will chair the UN Security Council, and in 2023, it will chair the SCO and G20.
Talks with Erdogan
Also, talks between the Russian leader and Turkish President Erdogan are scheduled for Friday. They previously met in Sochi in early August and also visited Tehran together for the Astana summit in July.
This time, special attention will be paid to current global and regional problems: the situation in Ukraine and Donbass, the implementation of the Istanbul "grain deal," and coordination of efforts to ensure peace and stability in Syria and the Transcaucasia.
On July 22 in Istanbul, a package of documents on food and fertilizer supplies to the international market was signed. In particular, thanks to a memorandum signed by Russia and the UN, the international community joined efforts to lift anti-Russian restrictions preventing the export of these goods. Another document approved a mechanism for grain exports from Ukrainian-controlled Black Sea ports.
At the same time, the Russian president drew attention to the fact that so far most of the grain exported from Ukraine went to European countries, and not to developing countries. At the same time, Putin promised that Moscow would continue working on the grain deal to achieve its goals.
Communication with Aliyev
Putin will conclude his series of bilateral meetings with foreign leaders with talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. They will take place amid this week's aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. Earlier Putin discussed the situation by telephone with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. In addition, there was an extraordinary meeting of the CSTO Council in an online format to discuss the problems that have arisen.
The Armenian defense ministry on Tuesday night reported that Azerbaijani Armed forces units opened heavy fire in the direction of Goris, Sotq and Jermuk settlements using artillery, large-caliber and small arms fire. Aliyev, in turn, said that the country's armed forces were retaliating, laying responsibility for the events on the military-political leadership of Armenia. Both sides reported military casualties.
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Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS