Jordanian King Abdullah to Pay Official Visit to RussiaJordanian King Abdullah Bin Hussein will travel to Moscow on August 27 for a two-day official visit, his first trip to Russia since he ascended to the throne two and half years ago, the semiofficial Jordan Times reported on Sunday.The monarch is expected to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials to boost bilateral ties and salvage the floundering Middle East peace process, the English daily quoted an unnamed senior Jordanian official as saying. Russia and the United States co-sponsored the 1991 Madrid Middle East peace conference which resulted in peace talks between Israel and its Arab foes, and the conference also laid the cornerstone for the peace process in the region for the past decade. Abdullah's trip to Moscow will be his first since he took the throne in February 1999 after his father King Hussein Ibn Talal died of cancer. He has visited the United States, most Arab and Western European countries. Currently Jordan is one of the only two Arab countries, next to Egypt, to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. |
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