Russian president Vladimir Putin visited Saudi Arabia and the UAE on Wednesday, December 6 with the goal of strengthening bilateral relationships with the countries in the region and their coordination on regional and global issues. Putin is also set to receive the Iranian president, Ibrahim Raisi in Moscow on Thursday.
Apart from the bilateral issues, Putin was expected to discuss important regional and global issues with the leadership in both the Gulf countries traditionally considered closer to the US.
This will be Putin’s first visit to the Gulf states since 2019.
Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Russia is part of the OPEC+ mechanism.
Issues related to energy cooperation would be a special focus of Putin’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Yury Ushakov, Russian presidential aide, told Russian media outlets. “Fairly close Russian-Saudi coordination in this format [OPEC+] is a reliable guarantee of maintaining a stable and predictable situation on the global oil market,” Ushakov said.
Saudi Arabia and Russia have been coordinating under the mechanism to control the oil prices in the global market despite the objections and pressures created by the US following the war in Ukraine.
The OPEC+ mechanism created in 2016 has recently announced another cut in the production for next year in order to stop the slide in the global energy prices. Putin is expected to discuss the decision during his meetings with Saudi crown prince and prime minister, Mohammad Bin Salman, and UAE president Mohamed bin Zyed al Nahyan.
Russia has expressed willingness to announce deeper cuts in production and exports in case the current cuts do not have desired effects on the prices of crude in the international market.
Greater cooperation on Palestine
Apart from the cooperation in the energy sector, Putin’s visit will also focus on other global issues. Both the UAE and Saudi Arabia were given membership of BRICS+ during the recent summit in South Africa. Both these countries will join the group as full members on January 1. Russia will host the next summit scheduled in October.
Putin is also expected to discuss the Israeli war on Gaza with both the leaders. Russia has maintained that the war in Gaza is a result of the failure of US diplomacy which did not address the legitimate Palestinian demand for a two-state solution for years. It has offered its mediation in the conflict.
Recently a delegation of Arab-Islamic countries had visited Russia seeking its help in taking concrete measures to address the Palestinian issue.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates also met on Tuesday December 5 in Doha. The participants in the summit condemned the Israeli war in Gaza and reiterated their demand for an immediate ceasefire. The Supreme Council of the GCC declared in a statement: “The Supreme Council called for providing international protection to the Palestinian people and held Israel legally responsible for its ongoing attacks that have targeted innocent civilians, resulting in the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip, the majority of whom are women and children, in clear violation of international law and international humanitarian law”
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian signed an agreement on Tuesday related to devising common ways to fight the impact of unilateral sanctions imposed on both the countries by the west.
Russia has been under heavy sanctions imposed by the US and the EU countries following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The US re-imposed sanctions against Iran following the unilateral withdrawal of the US in 2018 from the multilateral treaty known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) related to Iran’s nuclear program signed in 2016.
Iran is one of the founding members of OPEC and one of the newly inducted members of BRICS.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raeisi is scheduled to visit Russia on Thursday.
