Russia’s Putin hopes inter-Syrian talks to continue, result in peace settlement

CAIRO, February 10. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he hoped that inter-Syrian talks on the ongoing conflict settlement would continue and eventually result in peace settlement. ‘I have informed the [Egyptian] president on what we have achieved in Moscow during the meeting between the Syrian opposition and representatives of President [Bashar] Assad’s administration," Putin told journalists after his bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. "We hope there will be a next round of such talks, which I hope will eventually result in the peaceful settlement of the situation in Syria," Putin said. The Russian president added that during the meeting with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Tuesday they discussed the current situation in the world, agreed to boost fight against terrorism and focused on the issues concerning the Syrian and Middle East settlement. Putin’s trip to Egypt is his first foreign visit in 2015. Russian president’s aide Yuri Ushakov earlier said that the visit would be paid at the request of the Egyptian leader, who asked to "devote much more time to personal contacts with Putin to discuss various issues of bilateral cooperation and the most topical international issues in an informal and formal atmosphere." The Russian presidential aide said issues of cooperation between the two countries in the spheres of energy, including nuclear power, machinery manufacturing and space spheres, as well as tourism would be also in the focus of Putin’s visit to Egypt. The Russian leader is accompanied by a number of Russian ministers, Rosatom CEO Sergei Kiriyenko and Russian Direct Investment Fund director general Kirill Dmitriyev, and representatives of the defense sector. Putin's previous visit to Egypt took place in April of 2005. Dmitry Medvedev, who was the Russian president in 2008-2012, visited the country in June of 2009. El-Sisi, who took office last June, visited Russia in August of 2014, when he had his second meeting with the Russian leader. Before that, Putin and el-Sisi had a meeting in February of 2014, when the latter visited Russia in the capacity of Egypt’s first deputy prime minister and minister of defense. Apart from that, the two leaders had two telephone conversations in 2014 /in May and in August/. Read more