Putin: CICA summit participants may discuss problems ranging from Iranian nuclear program to Middle East
MOSCOW. June 13 (Interfax) - The participants in an upcoming summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) may discuss a variety of issues, ranging from the Middle East peace process to the Iranian nuclear program, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"It is another additional platform where the leaders of the region's countries can gather and discuss the situation unfolding in his huge region of Asia. It concerns the Middle East. It concerns South Asia. Here there are many issues and problems that require special attention, ranging from the long-running problems of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to Afghanistan, Iran, the Iranian nuclear program, North Korea and its nuclear program, and so on and so forth. There are scores of such issues," Putin said in an interview with the Mir TV channel ahead of his participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's summit in Bishkek and the CICA summit in Dushanbe.
Russia is "also troubled by the Middle East problem, but it is equally concerned about everything linked with the Iranian nuclear program and North Korea," Putin said, adding that Moscow has been very closely following the developments in Afghanistan as well.