President Ahmadinejad Off To Russia

Tehran, July 1, IRNA – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Tehran for Moscow Monday morning to attend the second summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) to start later today. President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to deliver a speech during the two-day event. He would hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on international issues. While in Russia, Ahmadinejad is scheduled to receive Iranian nationals residing in this country and participate in a live TV program. Several high-ranking Iranian officials including Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance, Shamseddin Hosseini, Head of Secretariat of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei and Vice President Hamid Baqaei are accompanying President Ahmadinejad. The GECF summit is to review the current situation of gas industry and the world economic situation. The GECF member countries possess 42 percent of world gas production and 70 percent of global gas resources. The current members of the GECF are Iran, Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands and Norway enjoy the GECF observer status./end