Putin to have a number of meetings, including with Iranian president, on sidelines of Ufa summits

UFA, July 9. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Ufa on Thursday will Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to discuss trade-and-economic and military technical cooperation between the two countries, as well as progress at the Iran-P5+1 talks on the Iranian nuclear programme and other issues, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said. Apart from that, the Russian president will meet with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev and will have a trilateral contact in the format Russia-China-Mongolia. The meetings will be held on the sidelines of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit and the forthcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Ushakov said Putin’s talk with the Iranian leader would focus on developing trade and economic ties and pressing international issues, including the situation around Teheran’s nuclear program. "The talks will focus on further expanding trade and economic ties," Ushakov said, noting that the memorandum on "oil in exchange for goods and services" has been successfully implemented. "In its framework, Russian companies work on concrete initiatives - in particular, in the sphere of geological and airborne geophysical surveys, construction of an alumina plant, resumption of the KAMAZ assembly plant, deliveries of railroad and agricultural machinery, food," the presidential aide noted. Putin and Rouhani will also "exchange opinions on a number of pressing international issues," Ushakov continued. The talks will mostly focus on the situation around Tehran’s nuclear program, resolution of regional conflicts and fight against terrorism. The presidential aide noted that there was not fixed agenda for bilateral contacts at the summit, so, in his words, "the leaders may raise any problems." Putin’s talks with the Kazakhs leader will focus on energy-related issues, the Kremlin spokesman said. Apart from that, it is planned to discuss the development of humanitarian contacts and cooperation between the two countries in other areas. Ushakov also said that on the sidelines of the Ufa summits Nazarbayev would be awarded Russia’s Order of Alexander Nevsky. Putin signed a decree to award this order to the Kazakh president in June "for great contribution to the development of bilateral cooperation and efforts to promote Eurasian integration processes." A trilateral meeting between Russian, Chinese and Mongolian leaders, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, is expected to center round "the pace of work to promote trilateral cooperation." Thus, in March, Russia came out with an initiative to work out a roadmap for the development of comprehensive cooperation between the three countries. "The document is at the final stage of agreement and may be adopted during the Ufa summit," Ushakov said. The first meeting between the three leaders was held at the initiative of the Mongolian side on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Dushanbe in September 2014. Back then, Xi Jinping came out with an initiative to create an economic corridor on the basis on transport and infrastructure projects of the three countries. On Wednesday, the first day of the Ufa summits, the Russian president had six bilateral meeting, namely with the leaders of China, India, Tajikistan, South Africa, Belarus, and Brazil. On July 10, Putin is scheduled to meet with President of Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Ashraf Ghani and Islam Karimov, and with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Read more