The UAE president is visiting Russia on Tuesday to meet Putin in an effort to help find effective political solutions to the Ukraine crisis

The president of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan is visiting Russia on Tuesday, aims to help reach effective political solutions to the Ukrainian crisis, as the UAE seeks to achieve positive results to reduce military escalation, reduce humanitarian repercussions, and reach a political settlement to achieve global peace and security.

UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan will meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, to become one of few world leaders who have made a similar visit since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On Monday, the Emirates News Agency said, “His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, President of the UAE, will pay a visit to the friendly Russian Federation, during which he will meet with His Excellency Vladimir Putin, the Russian President”.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed is scheduled to discuss with Putin “the friendly relations between the UAE and Russia and a number of regional and international issues and developments of common concern”.

The visit comes after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies in “OPEC+”, led by Russia, agreed last week to significantly reduce their production quotas, despite US President Joe Biden’s recent call for Saudi Arabia to increase production to try to limit the rise in prices.

Representatives of the 13 member countries of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries “OPEC” and their ten allies announced during their meeting in Vienna a significant reduction in production quotas by two million barrels per day, starting from November.

This move angered the United States, and US President Joe Biden expressed “disappointment with the short-sighted decision of OPEC”+.

The UAE has always been a strategic regional partner for Washington, but, like its other Gulf neighbors, it is trying to find a balance in its relations with its growing political and economic ties with Moscow.

While the world was quick to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the majority of the six Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE, avoided directly condemning Moscow, calling for a peaceful solution.

The UAE abstained from voting on a draft resolution drafted by the United States and Albania condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The UAE is also trying not to harm its relations with European countries as a result of this position.

Germany, which is seeking to diversify its energy sources, reached an important agreement with the oil- and gas-rich UAE last month, providing for the Gulf country, the European state, with liquefied gas and diesel in 2022 and 2023, during a visit by Chancellor Olaf Scholz to Abu Dhabi.

The visit of the UAE president to Russia is his third foreign visit since his election to office last May, after Saudi Arabia, where he met with US President Joe Biden and France.

He is one of the few presidents who have decided to visit Russia since the start of its invasion of Ukraine last February.