The Kremlin has announced that Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will meet with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in an upcoming summit of the leaders of Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) in Moscow.Kremlins top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters on Monday that President Putin is to meet with the Iranian president next month during the summit of GECF leaders, which is due to be held in Moscow on July 1-2, IRNA reported Tuesday.
Ushakov further announced that the Russian president also plans to meet with presidents of Venezuela and Bolivia as well as the prime minister of Libya on the sidelines of the GECF summit.
The Russian official noted that since the newly-elected Iranian President Hassan Rohani has not yet begun his official duties, Putin intends to meet with President Ahmadinejad instead.
The Kremlin official also pointed out that the first day of the GECF summit would be devoted to leaders meeting and bilateral discussions will be held among experts of member states on the second day of the event.
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum was founded in 2001 in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and its member states control over 70 percent of the worlds natural gas reserves and more than 80 percent of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production.
The legal establishment of the forum took place on December 2008 in Moscow, where energy ministers of member countries adopted the forums charter and signed an intergovernmental agreement.
The GECF members are Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. The Netherlands, Norway, Kazakhstan and Iraq have the status of observers.
By Press TV
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