(Dubai) Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday as Dubai hosts the UN COP28 climate talks – despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the war in Ukraine.
Neither Saudi Arabia nor the United Arab Emirates have signed the ICC’s founding treaty, meaning they have no obligation to arrest Mr Putin over the warrant accusing him of being personally responsible child abductions in Ukraine during its war against Ukraine.
However, the visit comes as UN armed police patrol part of Dubai’s Expo City, now considered international territory for negotiations, once again highlighting the extensive commercial ties between the Emirates and the Russia, which have exploded since Western sanctions targeted Moscow.
A statement on Mr. Putin’s trip issued by the official Tass news agency, published on Wednesday morning, did not suggest that Mr. Putin might come to the COP28 site, instead citing the Russian president’s aide, Yuri Ushakov , who said he would land and have a “palace meeting” and a one-on-one meeting with UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The visit comes after COP28 saw a parade of Western leaders, including US Vice President Kamala Harris, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and others supporting Ukraine, address the summit . The same was true for Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a long-time ally of Mr. Putin.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the COP summits, did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Vladimir Putin’s visit.
The Emirati COP28 organizing committee referred questions to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also did not immediately respond. The United Arab Emirates has repeatedly celebrated Sudan’s now-deposed leader Omar al-Bashir despite an ICC warrant for his arrest on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur.
Vladimir Putin last visited the United Arab Emirates in 2019, receiving a warm welcome from Sheikh Mohammed, then crown prince of Abu Dhabi. But since then, the world has changed a lot.
The Russian president has been in self-isolation during the coronavirus pandemic. He launched an invasion targeting Ukraine in February 2022, a bitter war that continues today and was a topic for Ukrainian diplomats during the COP28 negotiations.
Meanwhile, the war between Israel and Hamas remains a major concern for the Middle East, particularly for the United Arab Emirates, which gained diplomatic recognition with Israel in 2020. Recent attacks by the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group Iran’s interests in Yemen also threaten commercial shipping in the Red Sea as Iran’s nuclear program continues its rapid advance since the collapse of the 2016 nuclear deal.
Mr. Putin is due to meet Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Thursday for what Mr. Ushakov described as “a fairly long conversation.” The two countries are discussing ways to circumvent Western sanctions against them.
Mr. Putin will also visit Saudi Arabia and meet powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the one-day trip, Mr. Ushakov said. These discussions will likely focus on Moscow’s other major concern in the Middle East: oil.
Russia is part of OPEC+, a group of cartel members and other countries that have managed their production to try to drive up crude oil prices. Last week, the group extended some production cuts into next year and brought new oil supplier Brazil into its group. Benchmark Brent crude was trading around $77 a barrel on Wednesday, down from nearly $100 in September, on concerns about a weakening global economy.