It is assumed that at the beginning of the second week of July in Moscow on an official two-day visit will arrive the king of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud. This will be the first Royal visit to Russia after he took the reins in his country on 23 January 2015.
German news Agency DPA, citing diplomatic sources in Riyadh reported that king Salman, during a visit which he will be accompanied by a number of senior Saudi officials intend to discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the situation in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, the Palestinian problem, and combating terrorism. The Saudi monarch also intends to raise the issue around Iran, namely the degree of commitment of the Iranian government to the international agreement on its nuclear program, to explore the possibility of deliveries of Russian weapons to Riyadh, and, finally, to discuss the situation in the oil market, and also questions of economic cooperation and investment promotion between the two countries.
At the same time, these sources refused to comment on the possibility that Saudi Arabia will be asked to provide her with advanced Russian air defense system — rocket complexes With-400.
The Federal service for military-technical cooperation of Russia (FSMTC) said that Russian-Saudi consultations on military-technical cooperation is continuing, stressing that the deal on the sale of weapons between Riyadh and Washington will not prevent this process.
Last Tuesday on the sidelines of the air show “Le Bourget-2017” in France, the official representative of the FSMTC Maria Vorobyov told RIA “news” that Russia is continuing consultations with the Saudi leadership in the field of military-technical cooperation, and agreements concluded by Saudi Arabia with the United States for the purchase of American weapons can not and will not constitute an obstacle to continuing our dialogue in this area.
May 20 the President of the United States Donald trump in the framework of his visit to Saudi Arabia concluded with Riyadh a number of military deals worth $ 110 billion, including the sale of military equipment and provision of certain services in the field of defense.
In mid-March, the General Director of Russian Corporation “rostec” Sergey Chemezov, in a statement to the press noted that Saudi Arabia had a great interest in the purchase of a light artillery guns, helicopters and tanks T-90MS Russian production. The latter are a modification of the tanks T-90 was developed specifically for export to middle Eastern countries and Latin American countries with their specific climate.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Saudi Arabia has signed with Russia a deal on the purchase of the latest Russian MiG-35, released last year. The Russian army will receive a total of 40 such aircraft, while in the framework of the first deal to export 60 aircraft will go to Saudi Arabia.
© RIA Novosti, Grigory Sysoev | go to photobacteria multipurpose fighters MiG-29 and MiG-35
The MiG takes only 20 seconds to take off and attack enemy targets in the air. The plane is armed with six missiles of class “air-air” caliber 80 mm. It can achieve the goals of the enemy at the distance of 200 km before the last of his notice. The radius of 4500 km, the speed is twice the speed of sound. Could be armed with bombs weighing 500 kg in addition to the big bomb weighing up to 1,000 kg.
Saudi Arabia chose to buy these fighters. Until 2017 was released only 100 of these aircraft, of which 40 are intended for the Russian army and 60 for Saudi.
Sources do not exclude that Saudi Arabia has informed the Russian leadership about the causes of the crisis over Qatar in the Persian Gulf. They expect that Riyadh rejected any foreign mediation to attempt to resolve the dispute between the States in this region, since it is an internal matter, and the parties must reach an understanding first and foremost in the framework of the cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG). In addition, regardless of what political differences exist between the two countries, the Kingdom is striving hard to maintain brotherly relations with the Qatari people with whom he has blood ties and a common faith.
A number of observers are unanimous that the visit of Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Moscow last month and his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin when he was the second heir to the throne, eliminated some of the tension in relations between the two countries, despite the continuing divergence of views on the question of the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
© RIA Novosti, Sergey Guneev | go to Photobacterium of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Deputy crown Prince, second Deputy Prime Minister and defense Minister of Saudi Arabia Muhammad Ibn Salman al Saud during a meeting. 30 may 2017
Saudi expert and researcher Abdullah Nasser said in an interview with DPA that the nature of relations between the two countries is determined by the fact that Riyadh recognizes Russia as a great power, which has interests in the middle East and is able to shape the agenda in the region, using his influence in the Syrian issue and relations with several States. In turn, Moscow recognizes that Saudi Arabia was the main force that determines the position of the Arab world on many topics, particularly topics that are relevant to the confrontation with Iran.
In April last year, the speaker of the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian Parliament) Valentina Matvienko met with the king of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh and handed him an invitation from President Putin to visit Russia.
Matviyenko said: “Russia and Saudi Arabia, there is disagreement on the Syrian issue, but, nevertheless, we are not on opposite sides of the barricades”. Perhaps this statement is a brief evidence of the emergence of trust between countries, which, according to Saudi observers, so they need.
In addition, as noted by the observers, Saudi Arabia has already announced that it plans to build 16 nuclear reactors for peaceful purposes — they serve as sources for energy and water. A large role in the launch of the reactors is taken by Russia. Moreover, the Kingdom intends to invest in agriculture and purchase a number of agricultural companies in Russia to ensure food security in Saudi Arabia, and to strengthen the partnership between the two countries in the field of education, increasing the number of scholarships for students from Russia to 500.
The Saudis believe that in the oil sector, Russia has assumed all the obligations of price control on oil and successfully carries them out.
The Minister of energy of Saudi Arabia Khalid al-Faleh stressed that in recent time watching the strengthening of cooperation between the countries-OPEC members and countries outside this organization, headed by Russia. In his opinion, this policy contributed to the conclusion of an agreement on the reduction of oil production at 8.1 million barrels a day and its subsequent extension for another nine months until March of next year. “We saw that the market is relatively stable, and we expect his full recovery in the future, therefore we plan to continue cooperation between oil producers in the long term,” said the Minister.
Sources in the Saudi oil sector reported that Saudi Arabia and Russia intend to continue efforts to maintain the balance of the world oil market in order to achieve greater stability.
In particular, sources say that the parties have made joint efforts to reduce global oil reserves over the next five years.
It should be noted that in February 2007 the President of Russia Vladimir Putin paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, during which the sides signed a bilateral agreement in the field of air services, the agreement on the avoidance of double taxation of income from capital, as well as several agreements in the field of culture, tax policy, exchange of information and banking cooperation.
