On January 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who visited the UAE to participate in the 4th Session of the Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum, met with Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

The meeting was also attended by the UAE National Security Adviser Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister Mansour Al Nahyan and Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Abdullah Al Nahyan.

Two parties held a discussion on strengthening of the traditionally friendly Russian-Emirati relations and maintaining intensive and trust-based dialogue on the key aspects of the global and regional agenda. Mohammed Al Nahyan reaffirmed that relations with Russia are the priority of the Emirati foreign policy.

In this context, participants of the meeting focused on the goal of expanding bilateral business cooperation and cultural ties, as well as on the basis of the Intergovernmental Russian-Emirati Commission on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation and its working groups.

Mohammed Al Nahyan and Sergey Lavrov exchanged opinions on the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa. They spoke up in favour of an early political settlement of conflicts in this region and the continious fight against terrorists and extremist ideologies.

Two sides also discussed Russian-Emirati interaction in scope of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue and other multilateral formats. In this context, they stressed the importance of coordinated actions on the global oil market with due regard for the December 2016 agreements between OPEC and some independent producers to reduce oil production.