Kremlin says no date set yet for Saudi king’s visit to Russia

MOSCOW, July 22. /TASS/. The Kremlin said on Wednesday it had not yet been decided when Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud could travel to Russia. Asked whether a date had been set for the Saudi king’s visit to the country, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS: "Not yet." Peskov said that relations between Russia and Saudi Arabia were quite intense and the two nations maintained contacts at different levels. "An exchange of visits is indeed on the agenda. But as far as the king is concerned, I cannot say anything yet," he said. On Tuesday, Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov said after talks with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, that King Salman was due to visit Russia before the end of the year. "It has been announced that Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will visit Russia by the end of the year," Kadyrov wrote on his page on a social networking site, adding that the defence minister, whom he met in Saudi Arabia's Red Sea port city of Jeddah, had announced plans to send three delegations to Russia’s North Caucasus republic. Besides Prince Salman, the Chechen leader said he was expecting Saudi Arabia's foreign minister in September, as well as a delegation led by the minister of religious affairs and endowments and a delegation of Saudi Arabia's investment fund. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in June that the Saudi king had been invited to come to Russia in autumn. "The issue will be considered," he said. Preparations for King Salman’s visit were also announced by the Saudi defence minister at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia’s second city. Prince Salman also extended the king’s invitation to the Russian leader to visit Saudi Arabia. Putin said he would come with pleasure. Read more