Ahmadinejad due in Moscow for summit

Iran’s Embassy in Moscow says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to visit Russia at the head of a delegation to participate in the 2nd summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

According to Press TV, the forum is scheduled to be held in Moscow on July 1-2.
The Embassy said in a statement on Friday “In addition to delivering a speech at the summit, the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran will hold one-on-one meetings with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and some other senior officials attending the conference.”
President Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to meet Russian elite and Iranian expatriates, attend a press conference and give exclusive interviews to leading Russian media.
The statement read ”The 2nd summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum will be an opportunity to strengthen cooperation among member countries and exchange views at the highest level on the current and future situation of the gas market and gas industry.”
The 1st GECF summit was held in the Qatari capital, Doha, in 2011, bringing together 12 permanent members and three observer countries.
The GECF was founded in 2001 in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and its member states control over 70 percent of the world’s natural gas reserves as well as more than 80 percent of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production.