Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will conclude his working tour of Middle Eastern countries in Doha on Thursday, which also included visits to Abu Dhabi and Riyadh.
The Russian Minister arrived in the Qatari capital on Wednesday and has already had time to hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, which, however, took place in a closed format for the press. Lavrov will be received by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Thursday and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani.
Mutual interest
The previous meeting between the heads of the Russian and Qatari diplomatic departments took place on December 23 in Moscow. So the return visit did not take long. The more so since both sides stressed their interest in stepping up cooperation in all spheres at a press conference on the results of the meeting in late 2020. This desire is also fueled by contacts and agreements at the highest level.
At a meeting in December, Mohammed bin Abdel Rahman Al Thani stated his country's intention to increase mutual investment with Russia, which will obviously be another topic for discussion. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the sides plan to consider the harmonization of new projects in a number of sectors from energy, industry and agriculture to infrastructure projects and the peaceful use of outer space.
In addition, Qatar intends to take part in the upcoming St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on June 2-5 as a guest country, which also demonstrates the business attitude of its leadership.
Peace in the region
Earlier, Russia welcomed the decision of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt at the summit of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC) to restore relations with Qatar and stop the land, air and sea blockade of the country. Moscow expressed hope that the resolution of this crisis, which emerged in 2017, would allow for the promotion of a "constructive and constructive agenda" in the Middle East and North Africa region.
In Smolensk Square on the eve of the Middle East ministerial tour, they stated their intention to pay special attention to stabilizing the situation in the Persian Gulf zone on the basis of the relevant concept proposed by Russia, which includes the creation of a collective security system, and the decision taken at the GCC summit in January was clearly a good way to start discussing these ideas.
The Qatari authorities have generally praised Russia's efforts to resolve the region's problems and expressed their willingness to cooperate in this direction.
It is expected that the sides will also discuss the prospects for peaceful settlement of crises in Syria, Libya, Yemen as well as the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Afghanistan's denouement
Recently, the international community has been trying to give an impetus to the inter-Afghan settlement process in order to quickly find a way out of the protracted crisis. Thus, on March 18, there are plans to hold consultations of the enlarged "troika" (Russia, the United States, China, and Pakistan) for peaceful regulation of the Islamic republic. Besides, the newspaper The New York Times reported, quoting the document at its disposal, that on March 7, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sent a letter to President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan in which he suggested holding a conference on the peaceful settlement of the conflict under the aegis of the United Nations, because, in his opinion, the negotiations for peace were not going fast enough. According to the Tolo News TV channel, such a meeting could take place as early as March 27 in Istanbul.
Qatar has for years provided a forum for meetings between representatives of the United States, official Kabul and representatives of the Taliban (banned in Russia), as well as for inter-Afghan negotiations. Given this and the fact that Lavrov held talks with his Turkish counterpart, who is also in Doha, the settlement in Afghanistan could also become a subject for discussion during the talks between the sides.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS