DUBAI (Reuters) – United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan will travel to Russia on Tuesday to meet with President Vladimir Putin, UAE state news agency WAM reported on Monday.
The announcement came less than a week after OPEC+, a group of oil producers that includes the UAE and Russia, agreed steep oil production cuts in defiance of U.S. pressure.
The decision by Saudi-led OPEC and its Russia-led allies, the grouping known as OPEC+, has further strained relations between Washington and its traditional Gulf allies in Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, sources have said.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration had pushed hard to prevent the production cut, hoping to keep a lid on gasoline prices ahead of midterm elections in which his Democratic Party could lose control of Congress.
Biden flew to Jeddah in July for a Gulf summit to try to mend relations, but left without securing a deal for higher oil production.
(Reporting by Ahmad Elhamy in Cairo; Writing by Yousef Saba and Nadine Awadalla in Dubai; Editing by Michael Georgy and Mark Heinrich)
