Putin urges enhanced dialogue between Russia, next UN chief

Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to have the same course of interaction with the incoming UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, as he had with the outgoing chief, Ban Ki-moon.

In a meeting with Guterres on Thursday, Putin said Russia “has always supported and supports strengthening (the UN's) leading role in international affairs, in conflict-resolution, in the struggle for human rights.”

The Russian president said he would put efforts into maintaining with Guterres the "same constructive dialogue" that Russia had with Ban.

Guterres, the former prime minister of Portugal who served as the UN’s refugee chief, is to officially begin his tenure at the UN on January 1.

For his part, the incoming UN chief said that Russia played a “decisive role not only in the framework of the United Nations but in all other aspects of international relations,” adding that maintaining good communications with Moscow could guarantee his success at the top UN position.

“The fundamental conditions for me to be useful to the international community rest in my having constructive relations with a country like the Russian Federation," a Kremlin statement quoted Guterres as saying.

Russia began to feel frictions with Ban in the last months of the South Korean's term in the UN, when Moscow intensified a military campaign against terrorist groups in northern Syria.

Ban and several Western governments criticized Russia’s bombings of the city of Aleppo, alleging they detected cases of war crimes.

Moscow has denied the claims and vetoed a resolution drafted by France on a no-fly zone above Aleppo.

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