In his opening remarks, Mr Putin said he regarded Annan’s visit to Moscow as another step towards boosting interaction between Russia and the United Nations.
The Russian leadership believes the UN has a key role to play in maintaining law and order in the international stage, Putin said. He said that role was especially crucial in helping resolve the world’s many localised conflicts.
The Middle East and India-Pakistan conflicts were the focus of a recent session in Almaty at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, Putin said, adding that these two conflicts were among the most alarming.