Bahrain King and Putin to discuss anti-terror efforts

Bahrain King HM Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa who is on a visit to Russia, will meet  Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi today, the Kremlin's press service said.

According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, the talks will be held in a narrow and extended format and will be "rather comprehensive."

"During the upcoming meeting, priority attention will be focused on the development of bilateral cooperation in trade, investments, energy, financial and humanitarian spheres," the Kremlin said.

"The sides will also have a substantial exchange of opinions on the situations in the Middle East and North Africa, first of all in the context of fighting the international terrorism."

Both Russia and Bahrain stand for a political solution to the conflict in Syria to ensure stability in that country. "We need to find a political solution for Syria, which would be supported by all parties and would be based on the Geneva-1 agreement (the conference on Syria)," Foreign Minister of Bahrain Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in December 2015.

"It’s very important to us, therefore we appreciate Russia’s unfailing for many years, and especially more recently, commitment to save Syria." He said Bahrain hopes all players concerned will pool their efforts, including through a coalition of Islamic states, to repel the terrorist threat, Russian news agency TASS reported.