Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the United Arab Emirates to start a rare foreign trip that will also include a visit to Saudi Arabia, with bolstering cooperation among strategic oil producers a top priority.

Putin was greeted by senior officials from the country upon exiting the plane in Abu Dhabi Wednesday, according to a broadcast on Russian state TV.

The Russian leader will meet ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and later fly to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh to hold talks with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, according to the Kremlin. His first visit to the two countries since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 coincides with talks on reducing fossil fuel use at the COP28 summit hosted by the UAE in Dubai.

At the center of discussions in Riyadh will be Russia’s role in OPEC+, the Saudi-led alliance between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other major oil producers, which last week agreed to extend and deepen production cuts to bolster prices.

“This shows that Russia is not isolated internationally and has a large number of partners and friends in different parts of the world,” said Andrey Kortunov, research director of the Kremlin-founded Russian International Affairs Council. “The Persian Gulf is one of the regions where we can demonstrate this most effectively.”

Middle East Win

The talks also offer an opportunity for the Middle East countries, allowing U.S. ally Abu Dhabi to highlight it has “good relations with everybody,” said Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a Uae-based political expert. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Putin wouldn’t attend the COP28 summit while there.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is looking to the Russian leader to cement OPEC+ coordination, he said, after the agreement to cut production by 2.2 million barrels a day in the first quarter.

Although the alliance’s talks were marred by delays due to an internal disagreement between Saudi Arabia and Angola and Nigeria, officials from Moscow and Riyadh projected an image of close cooperation and mutual trust during the process.

Two Wars

Putin is also expected to discuss Israel’s offensive on Hamas in Gaza, which has been running since the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians. The fighting has created a wedge between the U.S., which supports Israel, and Arab nations including Saudi Arabia due to the thousands of Palestinian deaths and the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Moscow supports Riyadh’s push for an immediate cease-fire and the eventual creation of a Palestinian state alongside a Jewish one.