The discussion in Vienna of Russian President Vladimir Putin's initiative to organize a summit on security in the Persian Gulf showed that there are prospects for moving forward on this issue, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters.
"We, of course, gave priority to promoting in our contacts with colleagues the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold an online summit of states in order to carry out a direct brainstorming [on] the whole situation, and, of course, the Russian delegation took the opportunity to present in a substantive way not only the elements of this proposal of the President, but also to ensure a better understanding of the concept of collective security in the Persian Gulf, which we put forward in an updated form last year.<...> The discussion of this block of issues together with Iran, as well as in other formats, showed that there are certain prospects for moving forward, for linking this initiative with some other lines that our colleagues have," he said.
At the same time, according to him, the Russian side normally accepts the skeptical reaction of its colleagues to this proposal and will continue to work to clarify Moscow's approach to this issue.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry / TASS
Based on materials from TASS