Press release on Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to the State of Qatar

On August 29−30, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov paid a working visit to the State of Qatar. He was received by Emir of Qatar Tamim Al Thani, held talks with Qatari foreign minister Mohammed Al Thani, and met with State Minister for Defence Khalid Al Attiyah.

The participants expressed overall satisfaction with the current state of Russia-Qatar relations, and reiterated the commitment of Moscow and Doha to continue to progressively develop multifaceted cooperation in accordance with the agreements reached following high-level and top-level contacts between the two countries. They agreed to continue joint work to implement current mutually beneficial projects in trade, economy and investment, and to approve new ones in many promising areas of cooperation, as well as to build up exchanges and ties in culture and sport.

Discussing the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, the participants focused on the current crisis in Doha’s relations with a number of other Arab capitals. Minister Lavrov laid out Russia’s consistent and principled position which is to resolve all emerging disagreements through a constructive dialogue, as stated by the corresponding mediation mission of the Kuwaiti leadership.

The parties touched upon the situation in the hot spots of the Middle East, in particular, Syria, Libya, Yemen, and the Palestinian territories, emphasising the need to achieve national reconciliation as soon as possible while resolutely combating terrorism. It was acknowledged that the approaches of the two countries coincide with respect to the premise that people should determine the future of their respective countries in accordance with the fundamental principles of international law.