Putin says Russia-UAE ties at unprecedented level

MOSCOW - Relations between Russia and the United Arab Emirates are at an unprecedented high, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday.

Putin arrived in Abu Dhabi for talks with the UAE President who called Putin his "dear friend". He is due to then travel to Saudi Arabia for his first face-to-face meeting with MbS since October 2019.

The Kremlin said they would discuss energy cooperation, including as part of OPEC+, whose members pump more than 40% of the world's oil.

"Our relations, largely due to your position, have reached an unprecedentedly high level," Putin told Sheikh Mohamed, known as MbZ, at the presidential palace. "The UAE is Russia's main trading partner in the Arab world."

Putin said Russia and the UAE cooperated as part of OPEC+, adding that they would talk about the Israeli-Hamas conflict and the situation in Ukraine.

The Kremlin chief's last visit to the region was in July 2022, when he met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran.