Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay a working visit to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. Riyadh will be the second destination of the minister's tour of the Persian Gulf countries, which began with a visit by the Russian Foreign Minister to Abu Dhabi.
Lavrov will head to Doha on the same day, where he will meet with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, and will also be received by Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and hold talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani.
The program of the visit to the Saudi capital includes a meeting of the Minister with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, as well as talks with Foreign Minister Feisal bin Farhan Al Saud.
The agenda of the minister's visit promises to be rich. The talks are expected to focus on trade, economic and energy cooperation, regional security issues and resolution of ongoing conflicts, as well as the topic of combating the coronavirus.
A mutually beneficial partnership
Moscow and Riyadh maintain close trade and economic ties. As Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak noted in December after his visit to the Saudi capital, the two countries aim to increase bilateral trade to $5 billion by 2024. The feasibility of this rather ambitious goal is evidenced by the positive dynamics of bilateral trade: despite all the difficulties associated with the pandemic and generally unfavorable external market conditions, trade turnover between the two countries continued to grow: from January to October 2020, it increased by 6% - to $1.4 billion compared to the same period in 2019.
The work of the Russian-Saudi Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, established in October 2002, contributes greatly to maintaining this positive trend. It was reported in January that its next meeting would be held in the first half of 2020. As the Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out ahead of the talks, Lavrov is expected to confirm to his partners the plans to hold a meeting of the commission this year.
Cooperation between Moscow and Riyadh in the investment sphere is being strengthened, including through the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). Projects totaling $2.5 billion were implemented within the framework of joint platforms with specialized structures of Saudi Arabia, with 12 joint projects in various areas currently under elaboration.
The parties will also discuss issues related to the implementation of specific projects in areas such as space exploration and nuclear energy, as well as issues of improvement of the legal framework of bilateral relations.
Another topic for discussion will be further coordination of the situation on the global hydrocarbon market, to which Moscow attaches great importance. Russia and Saudi Arabia cooperate effectively in the oil sector and have repeatedly confirmed their determination to continue close coordination in the interests of maintaining stability in the world energy market.
Fighting the pandemic
Special attention during the visit will be paid to the cooperation between Moscow and Riyadh in the fight against the spread of the coronavirus. As it was reported earlier, clinical trials of a combination of the Russian drug Sputnik V with a vaccine developed by the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca were to begin in Saudi Arabia. The kingdom was among the first countries where such trials will be conducted.
The possibility of using Russian vaccines in Saudi Arabia will probably also be considered during the talks, as the heads of the two countries already spoke about by phone in February. Russian-made vaccines have not been registered in the Kingdom yet, but RDIF is working closely with Saudi Arabia and at the last ministerial meeting held in Moscow on January 14, 2021, the possibility of localization of Sputnik V production in Saudi Arabia was discussed. Perhaps it is through the upcoming talks that we will be able to give momentum to this issue.
Maintenance of regional stability
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the sides will discuss the Middle East agenda "with an emphasis on the need to resolve persistent conflicts in the region through negotiations on the basis of the legitimate interests and concerns of all parties involved. This is the angle from which the sides will analyze the prospects for resolving the crisis situations in Syria, Libya, Yemen, the Persian Gulf zone, and the Arab-Israeli settlement.
When examining regional issues, the sides will pay special attention to security in the Persian Gulf. In January, an agreement on the final reconciliation of the "quartet" of Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt) with Qatar was signed as a result of the summit of the Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Persian Gulf held in Saudi Arabia. Moscow called this an important step toward stabilizing the region.
However, the political confrontation between Riyadh and Tehran remains a factor of instability in the Persian Gulf zone. Back in 2019, Moscow put forward the concept of collective security in the region as one way to ensure it against a new hotbed of tension. It includes a collective mechanism for responding to challenges and threats involving the countries of the zone, including Iran and all Arab states.
As Lavrov reiterated during his previous meeting with his Saudi counterpart, Moscow is interested in ensuring that Iran and the Arab countries "establish normal dialogue between themselves, come to agreements on confidence-building, transparency in military affairs, and generally strengthen cooperation. And this is precisely what the Russian initiative is aimed at. Therefore, this issue is expected to be discussed in detail at the talks.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry
Based on materials from TASS