Russia’s
President Medvedev on Asia Tour Ahead of G8
MOSCOW
(RIA Novosti) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev embarked on
a weeklong tour of Asia that takes in four countries, a G8 summit
and meetings with a number of foreign leaders, a
Kremlin spokesman said. Sergei Prikhodko
said the tour begins with a visit to Azerbaijan, where
Medvedev will hold negotiations with President Ilkham Aliyev
and religious community leaders.
On Friday,
the Russian head of state moves on to Ashgabat, where Russian-Turkmen
negotiations will be held.
On Saturday,
Medvedev arrives in Kazakhstan, where he will meet with President
Nursultan Nazarbayev and also King Abdullah II of Jordan and
Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
Prikhodko
said Medvedev might have a meeting with Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili in Astana, on the sidelines of an official
ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the establishment
of the Kazakh capital.
"Even
if there is no bilateral meeting, there will certainly be bilateral
contacts," the spokesman said.
From Kazakhstan,
the Russian president will go to Japan, where he will attend
the G8 summit on Hokkaido on July 7-9 and hold a number of
bilateral meetings with G8 leaders.
The Kremlin
said Medvedev is to meet with U.S. President George W. Bush,
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas
Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Japanese Prime Minister
Yasuo Fukuda, and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
He may also
meet with the Italian prime minister and the Indian and Brazilian
presidents.