MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the United Arab Emirates (UAE) could be the potential venue for an upcoming summit with US President Donald Trump, stating the Gulf nation would be a “quite suitable place” for the high-level meeting.
“We have many friends who are willing to help us organise such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” Putin said, standing next to UAE leader Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, adding “it (the UAE) would be one of the quite suitable places”.
He said that “conditions” for a potential meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky had not been met.
“I have nothing against it in general, it is possible, but certain conditions must be created for this. But unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions,” Putin told reporters at the Kremlin.
The Kremlin said Thursday that a summit between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin was set for the “coming days”, with the two sides already having agreed on the venue “in principle.”
The summit would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021, and comes as Trump seeks to broker an end to Russia’s military assault on Ukraine.
Three rounds of direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv have failed to yield any progress towards a ceasefire, with the two sides appearing far apart in their demands to end the more than three-year-long conflict.
Earlier, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan arrived in Moscow for an official visit to Russia.
As the President’s plane entered Russian airspace, it was greeted and escorted by Russian military jets, according to the UAE official WAM news agency.
Upon arrival at Vnukovo Airport, he received an official welcome, including the playing of the national anthems of both the UAE and Russia. The UAE president is accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising several senior UAE officials.
