President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrived in Moscow on Wednesday for an official visit to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on bilateral relations and the latest developments in the region.
Al-Sharaa is accompanied by a delegation that includes the Secretary-General of the Presidency, Maher al-Sharaa, Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani, and Defense Minister Major General Morhaf Abu Qasra.
President al-Sharaa previously visited Moscow on October 15, where he met with President Putin at the Kremlin to discuss bilateral relations and ways to enhance strategic cooperation in various fields.
Putin and al-Sharaa struck a conciliatory tone at their previous meeting in October, their first since the ouster of Moscow-ally Bashar al-Assad in 2024.
But Russia’s continued sheltering of al-Assad and his wife since their ouster remains a thorny issue. Al-Sharaa has repeatedly pushed Russia for their extradition.
Al-Sharaa, meanwhile, has embraced US President Donald Trump, who on Tuesday praised the Syrian leader as “highly respected” and said things were “working out very well.”
“I have no doubt that all issues related to the presence of our soldiers in Syria will also be discussed during today’s talks,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday ahead of the meeting, while declining to comment on al-Assad.
Putin, whose influence in the Middle East has waned since al-Assad’s ouster, is seeking to maintain Russia’s military footprint in the region.
Russia withdrew its forces from the Qamishli airport in Kurdish-held northeast Syria earlier this week, leaving it with only the Hmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base on Syria’s Mediterranean coast -- its only military outposts outside the former Soviet Union.
“A discussion is planned on the status of bilateral relations and prospects for developing them in various fields, as well as the current situation in the Middle East,” the Kremlin said of the upcoming meeting in a statement on Tuesday.
Russia was a key ally of al-Assad during the bloody 14-year Syrian civil war.
The toppling of al-Assad dealt a major blow to Russia’s influence in the region and laid bare the limits of Moscow’s military reach amid the Ukraine war.
The United States, which cheered al- Assad’s demise, has fostered ever-warmer ties with al-Sharaa.
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies
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