DUBAI: The Russian Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov will lead a delegation to the UAE next month, according to the Russian Business Council.
The visit, which will focus on enhancing business and trade ties, comes as Russia experiences its biggest political and military role in the Middle East since the collapse of the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago.
Minister Manturov’s delegation will include Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Economy Alexev Likhachev and representatives from other ministries including the Ministry of Energy, Igor Egorov, Chairman of the Russian Business Council in the UAE told media at the Global Trade Development Week conference in Dubai on Thursday.
The delegation is scheduled to meet with Emirati counterparts with Abu Dhabi to host an intergovernmental meeting, he said.
The Russian government will likely be hoping to increase the amount of trade with the UAE, which Egorov said peaks at around $3 billion (Dh11 billion) annually and mostly made up of Russian exports of precious stones, metals and some military hardware.
Russia’s economy has stumbled over the past year under European and US sanctions as well as low oil prices. The UAE along with other member’s of the Organization for Petroleum and Exporting Countries (Opec) decided last November to keep oil production unchanged in a move that sent prices tumbling.
Egorov said a weak rouble, down 52 per cent against the dollar in the past 12 months, makes exports of consumables much more attractive to the UAE. The dirham is pegged to the dollar.
“We’re trying to make a breakthrough in food [exports],” he said.
On October 1, Russia began its military campaign in Syria to support President Bashar Al Assad, its biggest intervention in the region in decades. His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 11 in Russia.
