Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s on his third overseas journey since re-election in March, arrived in Uzbekistan on Sunday and met together with his counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev earlier than the beginning of official talks.
Russian information businesses reported that Mirziyoyev greeted Putin upon his arrival in Tashkent within the night and the 2 leaders left collectively in a automobile.
Images and video clips printed on Kremlin web sites and Russian information businesses present Putin throughout his go to to Tashkent’s new Uzbekistan Park, the place he laid a wreath at a monument to Uzbekistan’s independence.
Information businesses quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling Russian tv that Russia is open to broader cooperation on gasoline provides with Uzbekistan, saying “the potential right here could be very broad.” Putin has visited China and Belarus since being re-elected by a landslide.
Putin final visited Uzbekistan in September 2022 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Group summit, however he met Mirziyoyev in Moscow throughout Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on Might 9, Russia Immediately TV reported.
The Russian president has hardly ever traveled overseas since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022.
Final March, the Worldwide Prison Courtroom issued an arrest warrant towards him on suspicion of illegally expelling lots of of youngsters from Ukraine. The Kremlin has denied these allegations.
Deliberate a go to to North Korea
The Kremlin introduced final week that it was getting ready for Putin’s go to to North Korea, which Western international locations accuse of supplying Moscow with ammunition for assaults on Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov instructed Russia’s RIA Novosti information company final Friday, “President Putin has obtained an invite for an official go to to North Korea. Preparations are underway for this go to. We are going to announce the date in the end.”
The Russian president hosted North Korean chief Kim Jong Un for a summit in Russia in September 2023, on the finish of which no settlement was formally signed.
However Western international locations, notably america, accuse Pyongyang of supplying Russia with weapons and ammunition for navy operations in Ukraine.
Final January, Putin met with North Korean Overseas Minister Choe Son Hui in Moscow, marking a brand new signal of rapprochement between the 2 international locations, which share frequent borders.
In February, Putin gave the North Korean chief a Russian-made automobile, based on Pyongyang’s state media, which constituted a violation of a 2017 UN-imposed automobile import ban on Pyongyang, which Russia additionally signed.
North Korea’s official information company reported that Kim “obtained a Russian-made automobile for the non-public use of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of the Russian Federation.”
