Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Moscow to partake in the 2nd leaders’ summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and hold talks with foreign counterparts including Russian President Vladimir Putin

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Moscow to partake in the 2nd leaders' summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and hold talks with foreign counterparts including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ahmadinejad was welcomed Monday morning at a Moscow airport by a senior Russian foreign ministry official as well as Iranian ambassador to Moscow and directors of other Iranian representative offices in the Russian capital.

The president plans to discuss global natural gas production and prices, meet with world leaders and hold a press conference while in Moscow.

In addition to his talks with President Putin, the head of Iran’s executive branch is also due to meet and hold talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maleki and Bolivian President Evo Morales.

Speaking to reporters before departing Tehran for Moscow, President Ahmadinejad described the establishment of the GECF as a great initiative in which the Islamic Republic played a major role.

The president added that among the topics on the agenda of the summit, scheduled for July 1-2, are coordinating natural gas prices and production levels, various forms of marketing the product in the world and managing gas resources in member countries.

The Iranian president further described the role of energy as quite significant in global economic exchanges and thus political interactions, saying that fossil energy is regarded as more sensitive and of higher importance than other forms of energy.

He added that the main form of energy currently consumed in the world is fossil fuels whose rate of production and prices as well as supply and demand have played a determining role in global economic and political relations.

President Ahmadinejad also said that the establishment of GECF is the result of discussions and good cooperation between Iran, Russia and a number of other countries in the past several years in a bid to better coordinate the global production of natural gas.

Ahmadinejad stated that he plans to hold a meeting with Iranian expatriates in Russia and participate in a Monday night ceremony at the Venezuelan Embassy in Moscow, honoring the country’s late President Hugo Chavez.

The president is being accompanied on the trip by Iran’s foreign and economy ministers as well as several presidential aides.