President Vladimir Putin wants to connect ports on Russia's Arctic coast with ports on the Indian Ocean, he said at the Valdai Discussion Club conference.

Asia and the Middle East were in the spotlight during the conference, which Putin has attended since its establishment in 2004. Infrastructure development was a key part of this year's talks which took place last week.

"Together, we must think about how to speed up the formation of a Eurasian transport network, a true grid of latitudinal and longitudinal routes," Putin said in his speech. He also underlined that the Arctic must be part of these plans.

"One more prospective route is between the Arctic, Siberia and Asia," he said, adding that the missing link in the picture is a railway line to Sabetta, the new Arctic seaport on the northern coast of the Yamal peninsula.

"The idea is to connect the ports on the Northern Sea Route with the ports of the Pacific and Indian Oceans by means of transport arterials through Eastern Siberia, the center of Eurasia," the president said.

The conference was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, King of Jordan Abdullah II, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte.