Syria vows to respect past deals with Russia

President al-Sharaa holds face-to-face talks with Putin in Moscow

MOSCOW:

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he would honour all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow's two main military bases in Syria are safe.

Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al Qaeda and who toppled predecessor Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, late last year, was speaking at the start of Kremlin talks with Putin on his first visit to Russia since coming to power.

"There are bilateral relations and shared interests that bind us with Russia, and we respect all agreements made with it. We are working on redefining the nature of relations with Russia," Sharaa, who was speaking in Arabic, told Putin.

Putin told him that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called "many interesting and useful beginnings" that had already been discussed between the two sides when it came to renewing relations.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters after the talks that Moscow was willing to work on oil projects in Syria and help it to restore energy, rail and other infrastructure destroyed during years of civil war. "The two leaders had discussed this at length," he said.