This handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) shows Syria's President Bashar al-Assad being received by the Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister and the Russian president's special representative Mikhail Bogdanov upon arrival in Moscow on March 14, 2023. (Photo by SANA / AFP)
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Syria's leader Bashar al-Assad in Moscow on Wednesday, the Kremlin said.
"Topical issues of further development of Russian-Syrian cooperation in the political, trade, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as prospects for a comprehensive settlement of the situation in and around Syria will be discussed," the Kremlin said in a statement on Tuesday.
Assad's office said he had arrived in Moscow for an official visit during which he would meet with Putin.
In a statement, it said that the Syrian president had been greeted on arrival by Putin's special representative Mikhail Bogdanov and the Russian ambassador to Damascus Alexander Yefimov.
Assad was accompanied by a "large ministerial delegation", said the Syrian presidency statement.
Damascus is a staunch ally of Moscow which intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015 by launching air strikes to support the government's struggling forces.
The Syrian civil war has killed around half a million people and displaced millions more since it started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
