Middle East & North Africa
Putin and UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed discuss Russian diesel and the Persian Gulf crisis, Kremlin says
The Kremlin says Vladimir Putin and UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed spoke on 13 October about Russian diesel supplies to the US and the Persian Gulf crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by telephone with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on 13 October, and the Kremlin says the two leaders touched on Russian diesel supplies to the United States and on the crisis in the Persian Gulf.
According to the readout on the Kremlin website, the conversation took place in the year of the 55th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and the UAE. The Kremlin says the leaders discussed the further development of bilateral cooperation, which it describes as “strategic and mutually beneficial”.
Diesel and the Gulf
On international matters, the Kremlin readout says the topics included the agreements reached in the 9 October telephone conversation between Putin and US President Donald Trump “regarding supplies of Russian diesel fuel”, as well as “prospects for settling the crisis in the Persian Gulf”. The readout gives no figures, dates or terms for either subject, and no readout from the Emirati side was found in the sources read for this article.
The diesel arrangement was first described after the Putin-Trump call. In a separate statement on 9 October, Putin said Russia had confirmed its willingness to supply oil and petroleum products to the US market and to global markets. Geopolitiki reported at the time that Trump says he “agreed with Putin” that Russia will supply millions of tons of diesel; US eases sanctions until April 2027, and that Kremlin: Putin relayed Iran’s plan to end the war to Trump, in coordination with Pezeshkian.
The Kremlin account of the 13 October call ends with the two leaders agreeing to keep up personal contacts. It does not say whether the Emirates had a role in the diesel arrangement or in any Gulf diplomacy, and the readout is the only official account of the call available so far. Statements about the content of the talks should therefore be read as the Russian side’s description.