Russia welcomes Bahrain's decision to reopen the kingdom's embassy in Damascus and is ready for cooperation on the ground through diplomatic representations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday at a press conference following talks with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdel Latif bin Rashed al-Zayani.
"We welcome Bahrain's decision to reopen its embassy in Damascus, we are ready through our diplomatic missions there on the ground to continue a close exchange of assessments. And we certainly consider the return of Syria to the Arab League as an important near-term step," he said.
The Bahraini embassy resumed its work in Syria after a seven-year hiatus in 2018. Damascus' participation in the Arab League was suspended in November 2011. Most Arab countries withdrew their ambassadors from the Syrian capital and joined the economic boycott of Syria.
The concept of collective security in the Persian Gulf
Russia is working on an updated version of the collective security concept in the Persian Gulf zone and will soon present it to interested parties.
"For our part, we welcomed the process of normalization of the situation within the framework of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States. We are interested in ensuring that this important mechanism works in a coordinated way, including a broader discussion on ways to establish collective security in the Gulf as a whole, I mean with the participation of the Islamic Republic of Iran," the minister said. - "Our friends are showing interest in our long-standing initiative, the concept of collective security in the Gulf. Taking into account recent developments we are now working on its updated version, and will be ready to share it with interested parties in the very near future".
Russia maintains traditionally friendly relations with all the countries of the Persian Gulf region without exception, and interacts with them on an equal and mutually respectful basis. Back in the late 1990s, in a completely different geopolitical reality, Russia began to work out a concept for ensuring collective security in the Persian Gulf. The ideas set out in the document have been updated several times. The concept implies step-by-step progress, on the basis of equal interaction between all regional and other interested parties, toward unblocking conflict situations, developing confidence-building and control measures, and, ultimately, forming in the subregion an integral mechanism of collective security and cooperation, with the creation of appropriate organizational structures.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS