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UN chief says he will welcome Putin’s visit to UNGA in September

Guterres is travelling to Russia on Tuesday; on Wednesday, he will have talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Syria, Libya and Ukraine are among the topics on the agenda

UNITED NATIONS, May 11. /TASS/. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that he will be glad to hold a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly if it is held offline.

"I hope that the General Assembly works in person which is not yet clear, I would be delighted to receive President Putin coming to New York for the General Assembly," he said in an interview with Russian media outlets ahead of his visit to Moscow. "If it’s still not entirely in presence, I believe there will be many other opportunities as in the past."

"My first meeting with President Putin was when I was President of the European Council, Portuguese Presidency of 2000, and I had the EU-Russia summit in Moscow followed by the Russia-Portugal summit," he added. "Since then, I’ve had many opportunities to meet President Putin in different capacities."

Guterres is travelling to Russia on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he will have talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Syria, Libya and Ukraine are among the topics on the agenda.

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