Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa arrived in Moscow on Thursday to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, seeking Russia's support in addressing the"sensitive issue" in the Gaza Strip. He also expressed a desire to resume and improve relations with Iran. This visit aligns with Russia's efforts to strengthen ties with countries that have not joined Western sanctions aimed at isolating Russia.
Here is the full transcript of the public portion of the meeting before they proceeded to their closed-door session.
Vladimir Putin: Your Majesty! Dear friends!
Let me cordially welcome you to Russia.
Your Majesty, we have not seen you since 2016, although there have been contacts all this time. Just recently, in March, we talked on the phone again .
Next year we celebrate 35 years of diplomatic relations between our countries. Over these years, much has been done in building relations between our states. We have very good contacts through our Foreign Ministries, and our positions are close on many issues on the international agenda.
Just recently, a week ago, a meeting of the League of Arab States was held, where Bahrain now chairs. And of course, it would be very interesting to know your opinion about the situation in the Middle East and how these problems were discussed.
As for the level of trade relations, it is, unfortunately, symbolic in nature for now, but the trends are good. As for investment cooperation, the situation here is more favorable: approximately 30 large projects are being implemented, the total volume of the package is about 500 million dollars.
We have good relations in the field of culture. This year we intend to hold the Days of Bahrain in Russia, and next year, as far as I know, colleagues have agreed that “Russian Seasons” will be held in your country.
Other humanitarian contacts are also developing, primarily in the fields of education and science. There are good prospects here too.
We are very glad to see you. Welcome to Russia, Your Majesty!
Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa (as translated) : Hello, Mr. President!
I believe that this day is one of the happiest in my life, and I am meeting you on this day. Thank you very much for your invitation and your warm welcome. We really were in Moscow, in this beautiful city, a very long time ago, and we missed it very much, so we are glad to be visiting and meeting with our friends.
Of course, the development of our cooperation in various areas in a bilateral format is extremely important for us. Among other important goals of our visit: I want to tell you about the results of the Arab League summit. Your Arab friends convey their best wishes to you and highly appreciate Russia's role in the fair resolution of Arab problems. There is complete understanding and agreement regarding the need to hold a peaceful international conference. Russia will be the first country I will call on to support this conference, because Russia plays an important role - can contribute to it - and is one of the most influential countries at the global level. I hope that this conference will be held in Bahrain, God willing.
Also, Mr. President, I want to congratulate you on your victory in the elections. This testifies to your wise policy and also has a positive effect not only on the situation in your country, but also on the Arab world. This brings stability to Russia, our brotherly country, and today we see unprecedented growth in the Russian economy, an improvement in the situation both socially and in the security sphere. This happens not only in Russia and has a positive impact on our region.
One of the other topics is the situation in the Gaza Strip. This is a sensitive issue and we want an end to the war in this part of the world in order to save the lives of civilians. Many people, hundreds of thousands, have been forced to leave their homes because of this conflict. This area is only 40 kilometers long and 12 kilometers wide, and women, children are huddled on this land, and they are being shelled. I emphasize that we are talking about peaceful people, innocent people. As for the dispute and disagreements, they are historical. We, of course, will not touch upon the course of military operations; we are talking about the peaceful component. The position of the Arab countries during the Arab League summit was almost for the first time unanimity. This makes us happy, and it makes me personally happy, because this is the responsibility of the entire Arab world - the responsibility to solve serious problems.
We are also thinking about the principles of good neighborliness in Bahrain. We want us to have diplomatic, normal, cultural and other various relations with our neighbors. There is no doubt that you, Mr. President, will support this idea. This is also supported by the Bahraini people and me personally. I hope that there will be good relations between all countries in the region, in particular with Iran, because we have had problems before. Now they are practically gone. And, God willing, there is no reason to delay the normalization and improvement of relations, in particular with Iran. We have a history of relations, we have had mutual visits before, so the development of trade and living standards will be a positive fact if this comes true.
There are many other questions.
