Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in the Kremlin on April 17 with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who is on an official visit in Russia. As reported on the Kremlin site, “a partnership agreement was signed with the Qatar Investment Authority to set up a new US$2 billion Russian-Qatari investment platform.” Other agreements included “cooperation in healthcare, medical education and medical science, interagency memoranda of understanding on the development of public financial management system and on promoting physical fitness and sports.”
In his welcoming remarks, Putin emphasized the joint investment possibilities, noting that Qatar has already “invested approximately $1 billion in our economy through the Russian Direct Investment Fund. And I am confident that even greater opportunities lie ahead. We have a lot of interesting projects, quite a number. We enjoy effective cooperation within the gas exporters’ organization, and I really hope that we will have interesting joint projects in this area.”
