Saudi Arabia plans to discuss Putin’s visit soon

Saudi Arabia plans to start working out a possible visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Kingdom soon, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Russia Rayed Krimly told reporters on Friday.

"We hope to discuss soon the issue of the second visit of President Putin to Saudi Arabia. This issue was discussed during the visit of King Salman, when he invited Putin to visit Saudi Arabia again," the ambassador said.

"We are very glad about this burst of cooperation now seen in our relations," he said.

"As for the cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Russia, it is currently at the highest stage of its development. It is evolving and its prospects are limitless," the diplomat noted.

"If the relations reach a culmination, it signifies maturity and mutual understanding. We agree with Russia on many issues, despite some differences. However, we are constantly discussing them, because there is mutual understanding between our countries. The most important thing is to continue to coordinate, fulfill obligations and act in an honest way," the ambassador stressed.

"Russia was the first state to recognize Saudi Arabia, however, during the Soviet period, there were some differences due to [a conflict between] Soviet ideology and our Islamic ideology. We overcame this, and in 1991, we restored diplomatic relations," Krimly reminded.

Riyadh and Moscow have close positions on the settlement of the Syrian problem, he added.

"As for the Syrian problem, we share approaches with the Russian friends to a larger extent: we stand for Syria’s security and unity, we insist on the importance of the United Nations resolutions and [observance of] international law and the role of UN Special Envoy [on Syria Staffan de Mistura]. We are convinced that it is necessary to speed up the formation of the constitutional committee so that it includes representatives from both the authorities and united opposition," he stressed.

Putin paid his first visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2007. During this visit, the Russian leader met with former King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (2005-2015).