RFERL:

Russia and Saudi Arabia say they have agreed to expand their cooperation on oil and gas matters after having teamed up to help bolster oil prices in the past two years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, and the two nations' energy ministers reached the agreement in Moscow on June 14 before their soccer teams played each other in the first World Cup match, officials said.

Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih and his Russian counterpart Aleksandr Novak said in a joint statement that the world's two largest oil producers would continue their market management efforts by striving "for a balanced market that is supported by a reliable and sufficient supply" of oil.

The bilateral agreement was endorsed by Putin and Salman, who said "without a doubt, we would like to continue this cooperation and move forwards."

Salman said his country, which is the largest oil producer in the OPEC oil cartel, and Russia, which is the world's largest oil exporter, have forged "a very historic OPEC-plus agreement" to continue the cooperation between OPEC, Russia, and other non-OPEC producers that began in 2016.

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