RIYADH, 8 May 2003 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal left for Moscow yesterday to consult with senior Russian officials on a range of regional and international issues. The talks will mainly focus on Iraq and the situation in the Middle East after the release of the long-awaited Road Map toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Russian Ambassador Dr. Andrei Baklanov yesterday said that Prince Saud’s visit would strengthen bilateral relations. The two-day visit of the prince is significant in view of the fact that Riyadh and Moscow share similar views on a host of regional and international issues including Iraq.
The talks will also focus on bilateral issues.
Dr. Baklanov said Russia had been working closely with Saudi Arabia on some major draft agreements including an investment protection agreement.
On the regional level, Moscow has stressed the need to put in place a collective security mechanism for the Middle East.
The ambassador said the issue of the Chechen hijackers of a Russian plane had been settled long ago. A court in Saudi Arabia tried two Chechens who hijacked a Russian plane to the holy city of Madinah in 2001. A Russian hostess and a Turkish passenger died when Saudi special forces stormed the plane a day after the hijackers commandeered the aircraft on a flight from Istanbul to Moscow and forced it to land in Madinah.
On the economic front, Dr. Baklanov said Russia and Saudi Arabia had forged closer relations and pointed to the Saudi-Russian Joint Economic Commission meeting, to be held later this year in Riyadh. He also noted that a Saudi business delegation will visit Moscow in July this year. Russia, the largest country in the world stretching across the continents of Asia and Europe, has greater potentials to offer to the Kingdom, said the diplomat.
The ambassador said Russia’s petroleum giant Stroitangas had entered into a joint venture with Saudi Oger for the establishment of a consortium to undertake construction of pipelines and oil and gas exploration in the Kingdom and other Arab and African countries.
Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi also recently visited Moscow. During his visit, the Saudi oil minister spoke to the heads of leading petroleum firms to identify areas of cooperation in the oil and gas sector.
Crown Prince Abdullah earlier accepted an invitation to visit Russia, and the ambassador said his government was looking forward to the occasion.
Arrangements for an academic exchange between the Academy of Science of the Russian Federation and King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology are also under way.
