MOSCOW — Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday that he would honor all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow’s two main military bases in Syria are safe.

Retaining the bases is a priority for Putin. According to a Syrian government official, Sharaa was also due to ask Putin to hand over Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s longtime former dictator and a close ally of the Kremlin, who fled to Moscow after Sharaa’s forces toppled him in December 2024.

Sharaa was also expected to press for Moscow’s backing to resist Israeli demands for a wider demilitarized zone in southern Syria. He may also raise the issue of redeploying Russian military police as a guarantor against further Israeli encroachments, a Syrian source told Reuters.

Following Assad’s ouster, Israel deployed troops to southern Syria, mostly in a UN-patrolled buffer zone, in what it described as a temporary and defensive measure.

The two countries have since held talks. Conflict also flared over the summer when Israel bombed Syrian forces in the Druze-majority city of Sweida, and struck the Defense Ministry in Damascus, in response to accusations of Syrian attacks against the Druze.

“We are trying to restore and redefine in a new way the nature of these relations so there is independence for Syria, sovereign Syria, and also its territorial unity and integrity and its security stability,” Sharaa said ahead of the meeting, his first visit to Russia since taking power.

In front of the television cameras, Putin greeted Sharaa warmly at the Kremlin, but behind closed doors, the Syrian leader was expected to push for Assad’s extradition. Putin told him that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called “many interesting and useful beginnings” that had already been discussed between the two sides when it came to renewing relations.

The Kremlin chief also congratulated Sharaa on the fact that parliamentary elections were held earlier this month in Syria.

“I believe that this is a great success for you, because it leads to the consolidation of society, and despite the fact that Syria is currently going through difficult times, it will nevertheless strengthen ties and cooperation between all political forces in Syria,” said Putin.

The meeting underlines Moscow’s desire to establish working ties with Syria’s new leadership and secure Russia’s military foothold in the country.

Assad was an ally of Russia, and Moscow’s scorched-earth intervention in support of him a decade ago turned the tide of Syria’s civil war, keeping Assad in his seat until his swift removal in December.

Syria’s state news agency SANA said Wednesday’s visit concerned “bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international developments of common interest.”

A Syrian government official had told AFP on Tuesday that Sharaa and Putin would also discuss “economic issues related to investment, the status of Russian bases in Syria, and the issue of rearming the new Syrian military.”

According to the Kremlin, the two leaders were due to “discuss the current condition and prospects for the development of Russian-Syrian ties in the trade and economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as the latest developments in the Middle East.”

Russia, which has focused on the fighting in Ukraine since its invasion of that country in 2022 and kept only a small military contingent in Syria, didn’t try to counter Sharaa’s 2024 rebel offensive but offered asylum to Assad after he fled the country.

In a recent interview with the CBS News show “60 Minutes,” Sharaa said the current Syrian authorities “will use all available legal means” to demand the trial of Assad.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Moscow granted asylum to Assad on humanitarian grounds as “he and his family faced physical extermination.”

Lavrov rejected recent speculation that the former Syrian president had recently been treated for poisoning, saying that he “had no problems in living in our capital and there have been no poisonings.”

Despite having been on opposite sides of the battle lines during the civil war, the new rulers in Damascus have taken a pragmatic approach to relations with Moscow. Russia has retained a presence at its air and naval bases on the Syrian coast and the Kremlin has voiced hope for negotiating a deal to keep the outposts. Moscow has also reportedly sent oil shipments to Syria.

The Kremlin said before the talks that the fate of Russia’s two main bases in Syria — the Hmeimim air base in Syria’s Latakia province, and its naval facility at Tartous on the coast — would be discussed.

Russia, which has economic and energy-related interests in Syria that it also wants to secure, also has a military presence at Qamishli airport in the northeast near the borders of Turkey and Iraq.

Lavrov said Monday that Moscow believed Damascus wanted the military bases to stay and spoke about an idea of also using them as logistics hubs to get aid to Africa by sea and air.

Syrian officials are seeking guarantees that Russia will not help rearm remnants of Assad’s forces, a Syrian source said before the talks. Sharaa is hoping that Russia might also help rebuild the Syrian army, the same source said.

A Russian delegation visited Damascus in January, and Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani visited Moscow in July.

In the CBS interview, Sharaa noted that “Russia has close and long-standing relations with Syria, which relate to the basic structure of the state and to energy and food, for which Syria depends partly on Russian supplies, as well as some old strategic interests.”