Russian President Vladimir Putin will speak on Thursday, October 24, with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The conversation will take place within the framework of the BRICS summit, and this will be the first meeting between Putin and Guterres after the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, reported Agence France-Presse, quoted by BTA.
At the end of the BRICS forum in Kazan, Putin will have seven bilateral meetings, including with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Kremlin diplomatic adviser Yuri Ushakov said at a briefing in Moscow today.
This is Guterres' first visit to Russia since April 26, 2022. Then he met Putin in Moscow. During the talks, the Russian head of state said that he believed in a "positive outcome" from negotiations with Ukraine. Since then, Moscow and Kiev have suspended all formal negotiations, and their positions now appear even more irreconcilable. At the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia intends to send a message that the policy of sanctions and isolation, which the West imposed on Moscow in response to the attack on Ukraine, has failed, notes AFP.
On the sidelines of the forum, Vladimir Putin will have a total of about fifteen bilateral meetings, including with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian President Narendra Modi, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al Sissy.
The Russian president's international travels are restricted by an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March 2023 on suspicion of illegally deporting Ukrainian children to Russia - accusations that Moscow categorically rejects, AFP recalls.
Putin missed the previous BRICS summit in South Africa in August 2023 and then the G20 summit in India in September of the same year.
A few days ago, the Russian head of state announced that he will not travel to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on November 18 and 19 for the G20 summit.