(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, making his third trip abroad since his re-election in March, arrived in former Soviet Uzbekistan on Sunday and met his counterpart Shavkat Mirziyoyev before the start of formal talks.
Russian news agencies said Mirziyoyev met with Putin upon his arrival in Tashkent in the evening and that the two leaders traveled together in a single car.
Photos and video footage published on the Kremlin’s website and by Russian news agencies showed Putin visiting New Uzbekistan Park in Tashkent and laying a wreath at a monument to Uzbek independence.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by news agencies as saying on Russian television that Russia was open to broader cooperation with Uzbekistan on gas supplies, saying “the possibilities here are very extensive.
Putin has already visited China and Belarus since winning re-election by a landslide.
The Kremlin leader has rarely traveled abroad since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him last March on suspicion of illegally deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine. The Kremlin denies these allegations.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Diane Craft)
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