MOSCOW, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- The world's top oil producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, have agreed to work together to stabilize world crude markets, the Moscow Times reported.
"This day will go down in history as it opens a new era in Saudi-Russian relations," Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud told Russian President Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials during his three-day visit to Moscow.
It was the first visit to Russia by a Saudi leader in more than 70 years.
According to the text of the five-year intergovernmental agreement, the two countries which had no diplomatic relations between 1938 and 1990, "intend to strengthen bilateral cooperation aimed at the stabilization of world energy markets."
Russia's re-emergence as a top oil producer coupled with rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United States over the role of Saudi nationals in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seems to have brought Riyadh and Moscow closer together, the Times said.
