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The agenda included the further development of Russian-Yemeni relations in the political, trade and economic, and humanitarian spheres, as well as current issues on the regional agenda.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Chairman,

I am delighted to welcome you to Moscow. We are pleased to see you here and would like to thank you for finding the time to come to Moscow.

Before we begin, I would like to congratulate you once again, this time personally, on your national holiday, the 35^th anniversary of National Unity. I believe that you celebrated it just recently, on May 22. I sent you a message of greetings. Today, I have an opportunity to congratulate you personally at our meeting in Moscow.

Relations between our countries were established long ago and have always been friendly. We established diplomatic relations in 1928. Our embassy in your country is reopening now.

I would like to point out that our cooperation has been very active all these years, for nearly a century. Our specialists helped build numerous industrial and infrastructure facilities in Yemen, including the deep-water port, which continues to work effectively to this day.

We are also cooperating on the international stage, and we are grateful to you for your assistance in this sphere. Our diplomatic and foreign policy departments maintain regular contact, which is encouraging.

I would like to tell you that we plan to hold a Russia–Arab Summit in Moscow in October 2025. We hope that you will personally attend it. We will be delighted to see you in Russia again.

The overwhelming majority of our friends in the Arab world have agreed to come. We are working together with the Arab League. Preparations for the summit are proceeding apace. We hope that it will benefit our relations with our friends in the Arab world.

We maintain many contacts, and there are many promising spheres of cooperation. First of all, we will talk about the development of our trade and economic ties. These ties are developing well with Yemen. Overall, we are satisfied with the volume of our trade, which stands at about US$400 million. There are several promising spheres, in particular, agriculture, fishing, mining, and energy. In other words, there are enough topics for discussion. We have high hopes for the early resumption of the work of Intergovernmental Commission [on trade, economic, and scientific and technical cooperation].

The training of personnel is another important sphere of our cooperation. Approximately 1,500 Yemenis are studying in Russia; 400 of them are receiving budget-supported education. We regard this cooperation as very important not only because of its clearly humanitarian nature or that it helps train personnel, but also because this is creating conditions for communication between our people, which is extremely important for our interaction in all the other spheres I have just now mentioned.

Mr Chairman, we are delighted to see you. Welcome.

Chairman of the Presidential Leadership Council of the Republic of Yemen Rashad Mohammad al-Alimi (retranslated): Thank you, Mr President.

I am truly pleased to be in Moscow today during this month marking the anniversary of the defeat of Nazism. Russia played a decisive role in achieving this victory for all humanity. I am delighted to be here today. Regrettably, I was unable to attend the Victory Day celebrations on May 9.

Mr President, I have come here today first and foremost to thank you for your support of Yemen’s legitimate government. Following the coup orchestrated by the Houthis with Iranian backing, Russia’s stance in the Security Council and across international platforms has consistently upheld constitutional legitimacy while promoting Yemen’s development and prosperity.

We are committed to developing our cooperation further, which already spans almost a century, and we are determined to work towards celebrating 100 years of our diplomatic relations in the coming years. Our bilateral ties have made significant progress in recent years.

All of us, the generation living today, are aware that the Soviet Union was the first state to recognise the Republic of Yemen. During the war that occurred in Yemen at the time, all other ambassadors left but the Soviet ambassador stayed. A great deal was accomplished thanks to Soviet support. We are determined to ensure continued cooperation with Russia in this spirit. We want Russia to assist us in restoring peace, stability, and security in Yemen, and in reestablishing a normal functioning republic. We oppose the militarisation of the Red Sea and the deterioration of relations with neighbouring countries.

Mr President, we are committed to expanding cooperation across all sectors. Thank you for the support provided to our students and to our community, including those who fled the country following the Houthi coup. We also know that many Yemeni citizens have Russian spouses and children, which is another significant factor.

We are grateful to the Russian people and leadership for their support and hope that the Russia–Arab Summit will serve as a milestone, further advancing relations between the Arab world and Russia. We also wish to see the Russian Embassy in Aden reopen shortly. Our efforts are focused on rebuilding state institutions, which will contribute to restoring peace.

We are grateful to Saudi Arabia for its efforts to support peace in our country. Unfortunately, the Houthi movement staged a coup. We still believe in peace and in the restoration of stability.

Thank you for the invitation, Mr President. Russia-Yemen relations demonstrate that we have numerous joint projects, including hospitals built by the USSR. There are tens of thousands of alumni of Russian universities, including our Defence Minister, who graduated from a Soviet military academy. One of my delegation members is also a Russian alumnus.

We intend to develop our relations further.

Thank you very much.

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