Syria’s Transitional President, Ahmed Al-Sharaa, met on Wednesday with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow, reported Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).
In their first meeting since the ouster of former leader Bashar Al-Assad in December 2024, Al-Sharaa told Putin that he seeks to rebuild ties with all regional and international countries, emphasizing the depth of relations and mutual interests between Damascus and Moscow.
“We are trying to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these relations,” Al-Sharaa said. He also noted that “a significant part of Syria’s energy sector relies on Russian expertise,” reaffirming that Syria “respects all agreements signed with Russia.”
During their one-on-one meeting in the Kremlin, Putin hailed Russian-Syrian relations that date back to over 80 years, stressing that Moscow has been guided solely by “the interests of the Syrian people” in its relations with Damascus, according to Russian News Agency (TASS).
After that, the two leaders held talks with their delegations. In the light of this, the Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said that Russia and Syria are holding dialogue on a wide range of issues, including military presence.
“Our bilateral agenda with Syria covers a wide range of issues of Russian-Syrian cooperation. Issues surrounding our military presence in the Syrian Arab Republic are also being discussed, including in the context of a possible reformatting of the functionality of Russian military facilities. Naturally, such issues and contacts are conducted behind closed doors,” she told a press briefing.
Al-Sharaa arrived in Moscow on Wednesday, on his first working visit to Russia. Al-Sharaa and Putin are expected to discuss “the current state and future of Russia-Syria political, trade, economic and humanitarian ties, as well as the situation in the Middle East,” according to the Kremlin.
