Russia hopes to coordinate its positions with Qatar on energy-related issues - Putin

MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Russia hopes to coordinate positons on energy-related issues, in particular in the gas sector, with Qatar, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday at a meeting with Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. "We have a need to speak about cooperation and coordination of positions in the energy sector, especially in the sphere of gas," the Russian leader said. Apart from that, the agenda of the talks includes investment cooperation and the situation in the Middle East where Qatar is playing a major role. "We hope to discuss the situation with you, to exchange opinions, to look at possible solutions to the most complicated problems," Putin said. The Russian delegation to the talks includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. Qatar’s delegation includes Foreign Minister Khalid bin Muhammad al-Atiyah, chief of staff of the administration Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, and security service chief Ghanim Khalifa al-Kubaisi. This is Putin’s second meeting with Al Thani. The previous one took place on February 5 at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi. In January-October 2015, trade between the two countries shrank by 44 percent on the same period in 2014 and stood at 24.8 million U.S. dollars. Russia’s exports to Qatar went down by 33 percent due to a 3.7-times reduction of wheat exports. "The sides plan to substantially exchange opinions on urgent issues of the international agenda, first of all the situation in the Middle East region and Northern Africa," the Kremlin press service said ahead of the visit. The Kremlin said that during the upcoming meeting, priority attention will also be paid to "comprehensively boosting Russian-Qatari cooperation in the trade, economic, investment, energy and humanitarian spheres." Read more