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A handshake between leaders of Persian Gulf states can mean a lot - Putin

Russian President pointed out, that serious contradictions between a number of the Persian Gulf countries speak in favor of Russia’s initiative on creating an organization that would serve as a platform for the leaders of those states to meet and negotiate

MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. Serious contradictions between a number of the Persian Gulf countries speak in favor of Russia’s initiative on creating an organization that would serve as a platform for the leaders of those states to meet and negotiate, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with RT Arabic, Al Arabiya and Sky News Arabia TV channels on Sunday ahead of his visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

According to him, this organization "would bring together the countries of the region as well as several other stakeholders, the US and the EU to name just a few," and "would serve as a platform to discuss crises and all kinds of pressing problems."

"Some have already voiced their support; others say it is too early to launch such an initiative. And the reason for that, by the way, is the serious contradictions between regional powers. From my point of view, these deep contradictions call for such a platform, so that countries could at least sit at the negotiating table," Putin said.

"As you may be aware, sometimes it is not the negotiations that matter, but a handshake. A handshake can mean a lot," the Russian leader concluded.

On October 3, speaking at a plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin said that Russia offers to establish an organization with the participation of Russia, the US, EU states and other countries in order to resolve the issues in the Persian Gulf.

In July, the Russian Foreign Ministry introduced a concept of collective security in the Persian Gulf region. The concept includes forming an initiative group to organize an international conference on security and cooperation in the Persian Gulf area, which would lead to the establishment of an organization for security and cooperation in the region. Besides, Moscow offered to establish demilitarized zones in the region, abandon permanent deployment of units of non-regional states and establish military hotlines.