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Riyadh has hosted talks between the President of Russia and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia. The talks focused, among other things, on coordinating measures to stabilise oil prices, as well as the situation in Syria and the Persian Gulf region, and the Palestinian-Israeli settlement.

In addition, the leaders discussed building up their multi-dimensional cooperation in various areas, such as energy, agriculture, industry and military-technical cooperation, as well as cultural and humanitarian exchanges.

The parties had a detailed exchange of views on current international issues, with an emphasis on the developments in the Middle East and North Africa.

Following the visit, a package of bilateral documents was signed, including both interagency and commercial agreements. The sides signed the Charter of Cooperation of Oil Producing Countries and the programme for high level Russian-Saudi strategic cooperation of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation. Other documents concern cooperation in manned cosmonautics and the GLONASS global navigation satellite system, energy, culture, healthcare, mass communications, tourism, mutual visa facilitation agreements, encouragement and protection of capital investment and mutual expansion of agricultural and food exports. A number of documents regulate specific issues of joint investment and joint projects.

Later, Vladimir Putin held talks with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.

The sides also exchanged gifts.

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Beginning of talks with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Your Majesty, I am pleased to be in the hospitable nation of Saudi Arabia again. I remember my visit to your country in 2007. Back then, I had the pleasure of seeing you and talking with you. You spent much time with our delegation, and we talked a lot.

Russia attaches particular importance to expanding friendly and mutually beneficial ties with Saudi Arabia. Bilateral relations were established over 90 years ago in 1926, the dawn of the state of Saudi Arabia. The Soviet Union was the first foreign country to recognise the young Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd led by your father.

Your Majesty, we appreciate your personal contribution to promoting multifaceted Russia-Saudi Arabia cooperation. Your first ever visit to Russia in October 2017 was quite effective. The agreements reached back then are being successfully implemented.

Trade and economic cooperation is getting stronger. Last year, trade grew by 15 percent to over $1 billion, adding another 38 percent in January-July. The intergovernmental commission is working effectively, and its most recent meeting was held in Moscow in June.

Your Majesty, the Russian-Saudi Economic Council, which you just mentioned, has been effectively created and its members include representatives of major businesses of our respective countries. Today, we plan to take part in the council’s first meeting.

During the talks, we will review the key aspects of our cooperation, outline plans for the future and, of course, exchange opinions on international matters.

Saudi Arabia will chair the G20 next year and will play an important role in addressing key issues on the global economic agenda.

I had a very productive discussion with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman at a summit in Osaka, Japan, in June. We agreed, in particular, to extend the OPEC+ agreements in order to stabilise the global oil market.

We see Russian-Saudi coordination as an indispensable element for ensuring security in the Middle East and North Africa.

I am convinced that without your country, it is hardly possible to achieve a just and long-term settlement of any problem in this region.

I hope that this visit will give an additional boost to our cooperation across all areas. We have drafted an extensive package of joint documents to be signed during this visit and acted upon later.

Thank you.