Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s statement and answers to questions at a news conference following talks with Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Moscow, July 4, 2025

I have just held talks with my colleague and friend, Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

We focused on the development outlook for friendly Russian-Saudi relations and expressed support for continuing our collaboration in all spheres to further strengthen them. We noted the positive dynamics of our political dialogue, primarily at the highest level, but also at the level of our foreign ministries. We welcomed our mutual intention to stimulate our interparliamentary contacts, which are actively developing. We agree on the need to intensify delegation exchanges for implementing the agreements reached during the working visit of President Vladimir Putin to Saudi Arabia in December 2023 and his subsequent contacts with Prime Minister Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.

We discussed our trade and economic ties, acknowledging the positive trend in the development of mutual trade in the past few years, as well as in the first few months of this year. The Joint Intergovernmental Russian-Saudi Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation is of key importance for identifying new possibilities for making full use of our two countries’ potential. The commission held its previous meeting in Moscow in late 2023 and will meet next in Saudi Arabia in the latter half of 2025.

Our countries are committed to continuing their close cooperation in the OPEC+ format. Just like our Saudi friends, we believe that this unique mechanism of the leading oil exporting countries is extremely important for balancing supply and demand on the global energy market.

We spoke highly about the growth of our tourist exchanges. In 2024, the number of Saudi tourists in Russia was nearly six times larger than in 2023. More Russians now choose Saudi Arabia as their tourist destination. In 2024, they made over 36,000 trips to the Kingdom. I am confident that the further development of our tourist exchanges and contacts between our business communities and the general public will be facilitated by direct flights between Saudi Arabia and the Russian Federation, which are scheduled to begin in October 2025, as well as by the visa waiver agreement for the nationals of the Kingdom and the citizens of Russia. Its drafting is in the final stage.

I have also expressed gratitude to the Saudi authorities for the attention and support they give to organising the hajj of Russian Muslims to the Islamic relics situated in the Kingdom.

We welcomed the intention of our Saudi friends to participate in the InterVision music contest, which will be held in Russia in September per President Putin’s decision. We will look forward to seeing Saudi participants in this interesting event, which will hopefully become regular.

We discussed international and regional matters focusing on the Middle East, and welcomed the ceasefire between Israel and Iran expressing hope that it would be a durable solution and open the door to resuming talks. Both sides believe it is imperative to refrain from taking any actions that could spark renewed hostilities. Any and all arising differences of opinion should be resolved exclusively through political and diplomatic means in full adherence to the UN Charter and with the strong involvement of the countries that have leverage over the parties’ positions. Sure enough, Saudi Arabia and Russia are among them.

We expect the leaders of the Gulf Arab states and Iran to demonstrate their traditional wisdom and healthy pragmatism in order to maintain the positive outcomes achieved over the recent years and to continue the efforts to promote neighbourly relations. Notably, the agreement between the Kingdom and Tehran on normalising relations played a decisive role in achieving normalised relations between the Gulf Arab states and Iran.

Our positions on the Middle East settlement, the Palestinian issue, particularly the situation in Gaza, overlap as well. We consider it mandatory to take urgent measures to de-escalate the situation and to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip. The situation is not any better on the West Bank of the Jordan River. We advocate for the earliest possible resumption of talks between Palestinians and Israelis on the final status of Palestinian territories and for the implementation of the widely known UN resolutions on creating a Palestinian state.

Russia highly appreciates Saudi Arabia’s efforts to achieve settlement in Yemen. We remain convinced that the path to stabilisation lies through a UN-sponsored dialogue involving all influential political forces in that country, and that UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Yemen Hans Grundberg’s energetic efforts to normalise the situation remain relevant.

We support bringing a comprehensive relief to the long-standing crisis in Syria based on maintaining its unity, territorial integrity, and sovereignty.

Russia expects Saudi Arabia to be properly represented at the first-ever Russia-Arab League summit in Moscow in October 2025. The date has been determined. We look forward to the League’s heads of state taking part in this event.

The 8th ministerial meeting of the Russia-GCC Strategic Dialogue will take place in Sochi in September, before the summit.

I thanked our Saudi friends for their balanced position on Ukraine affairs and their genuine desire to contribute to peaceful settlement, including by providing a platform for Russia-US contacts. Our Saudi friends are aware that achieving political and diplomatic settlement is impossible without addressing the underlying causes of the conflict, as President Putin reiterated in yesterday’s telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump. An outcome that does not fully take into account Russia’s legitimate security interests and does not guarantee non-recurrence of violations of the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population does not align with our expectations.

As always, the talks were held in an atmosphere of mutual trust. I am satisfied with the outcomes, and I would like to thank my colleague and friend once again and give him the floor.

Question: Are you considering the possibility of holding Russian-US talks in Riyadh, including at the highest level?

Sergey Lavrov: I have said in my remarks that we are ready to consider that hospitable and friendly venue, just as we did in February 2025 when we held a meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and then National Security Adviser Michael Waltz at the suggestion of our American colleagues. I was accompanied by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov. Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud opened that meeting and wished us success.

It was a good meeting. We later stated that it was a concrete and substantive conversation without any political or ideological bias. After it, we held a working breakfast with Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his colleagues.

I presume that both our American counterparts and we felt absolutely comfortable. If any subsequent contacts are planned, we will take the venue proposed by Saudi Arabia into account in coordination with Washington.

Question: Moscow has called for a diplomatic settlement of the conflict in the Middle East. Is the Iran-Israel war really over? What risks will the resumption of hostilities entail? What is Moscow’s role in preventing an escalation?

Sergey Lavrov: We hope that the so-called 12-day war is over. Statements to this effect have been made by President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. However, we don’t want the events to take their course because “the party of war” is still very active in the Middle East.

Various statements have been made by some members of the Israeli leadership. I hope that the European countries will become aware of their responsibility. They have tried to push through anti-Iranian solutions, without any particular reason, at the recent session of the IAEA Board of Governors. At the very least, these solutions cannot help ease tensions or promote negotiations, and were most likely used as a pretext for using force. I hope that our European colleagues will draw the appropriate conclusions.

As for Russia’s role, we are communicating with the Iranian party. Foreign Minister of Iran Abbas Araghchi has recently visited Moscow and held an extensive conversation with President Vladimir Putin. We are also communicating with our American colleagues. Iran was a key issue of yesterday’s telephone conversation between our leaders, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Our shared opinion is that everything possible must be done for the talks to resume. This view is also shared by Saudi Arabia, with which we maintain contact on the entire range of regional issues, including the current situation between Iran and Israel.

Diplomacy must focus on talks. We will do our utmost and use all the possibilities available to us to attain this noble goal.

Question: Did you discuss the possibility of joint projects and initiatives within OPEC+?

Sergey Lavrov: OPEC+ is largely functioning thanks to the proactive stance of Saudi Arabia  and Russia, which co-chair the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC). The committee plays the decisive role in monitoring compliance with the member countries’ voluntary commitments to oil production quotas. So far, it is our shared view that these compliance levels are reasonably satisfactory and are helping stabilise the global oil and energy market. We have agreed to continue this cooperation today.