Saudi king arrives in Russia to discuss Syrian conflict, oil prices

Monitoring Desk

MOSCOW: Saudi King Salman arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, as it was the first official visit to Russia by any Saudi rulers in the history.

King Salman will likely to focus on energy and the ongoing Syrian conflict in his three day visit to Moscow.

Both Saudi Arabia and Russia are heavily dependent on oil exports and the plunge of the price of crude that began in 2014 disrupted their economies.

King Salman will hold meeting with President Vladimir Putin on Thursday and they are expected to discuss oil production matters ahead of the OPEC oil cartel meeting in November and to cut the crude output with the aim to increase the oil prices.

While cooperating in oil market but Riyadh and Moscow was standing on the opposite sides in the Syrian conflict as Russia supporting the Bashar-ul-Assad government while Saudi government support the opposition of Syria and it is likely to be on the top list issue between the two countries.