Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday thanked Russia for its assistance in finding the remains of an Israeli soldier missing in battle since 1982.

Netanyahu is meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow visit just five days before parliamentary elections at home.

The vote is largely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu, who has campaigned on his foreign policy prowess and relations with world leaders.

On Wednesday, Israel announced the recovery of the remains of a soldier who went missing in a 1982 battle with Syrian forces in southern Lebanon. Putin acknowledged that Russia had worked to retrieve Zachary Baumel’s remains from Syria.

“Our military together with Syrian partners established the place of his burial,” Putin said at the start of the meeting. “We are very pleased that at home they can give him the necessary military honours.”

Cases of missing soldiers have a powerful emotional and political resonance in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men. Netanyahu lauded the repatriation of Baumel’s remains as an “expression of mutual responsibility and feeling of unity” that epitomises Israel.

The trip to Moscow, made at Netanyahu’s request, came a week after he travelled to Washington and met with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Netanyahu also hosted Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in Jerusalem earlier this week. Before departing from Israel, Netanyahu said he and Putin would “discuss events in Syria,” including the “special coordination between our militaries.”