The Hindu : Saudi Arabia, Russia to sign oil deal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 03, 2003

International

International

Saudi Arabia, Russia to sign oil deal

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW SEPT. 2. The Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah is visiting Russia in an effort to forge closer ties between the two countries in the backdrop of Saudi Arabia's strained relations with the United States.

Crown Prince Abdullah, who is Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, is the highest Saudi official to visit Russia yet.

During the visit, the two biggest oil exporters of the world are to sign a key cooperation and investment accord in the oil and gas field, an agreement on combating terrorism and some other accords.

Russian media link the recent warming of Russian-Saudi relations, which have been cool for decades, to a rift between Riyadh and Washington over the war on terrorism. "Relations between Saudi Arabia and Russia started growing largely thanks to the diversification of the Saudi foreign policy, which had unjustifiably been focussed long on the U.S.," the state-owned Itar-Tass news agency said in a commentary.

Crown Prince Abdullah is coming to Moscow a month after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, during a visit to Malaysia, announced his intention to get Russia admitted to the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).

Having secured Kuala Lumpur's support for his plan, Mr. Putin will now try to win the backing of Riyadh.

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