By Xinhua
Abu Dhabi : Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks on Monday with his counterpart of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to boost bilateral relations, the official Emirates News Agency reported.
During the meeting, UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed AlNahyan expressed his hope that Putin’s visit would enhance consolidation of relations between the two countries on political, economic, commercial, cultural and scientific fields, the report said.
“The UAE is keen to avail more partnership, cooperation and friendship opportunities with Russia, particularly in the economic,commercial and investment fields,” Sheikh Khalifa said.
Putin said that his visit “reflects significance of relations between the two countries, which is part of our efforts to establish better relations with countries in the Gulf region.”
“Russia deems the UAE as an economic, commercial and investmen tpartner in the region,” Putin added.
The two leaders also exchanged views on the latest regional and international issues, notably the peace process in the Middle East and situation in Iraq.
After the meeting, the two sides signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding in the fields of crime prevention, air services, standardization and metrology, political consultations, space science for peaceful purposes and banking.
Putin is the first Russian state leader to visit the UAE since the two counties established diplomatic relations in the 1970s.
The historic visit by the Russian president to the UAE is also part of Russia’s stated intention of boosting ties with Arab and Muslim countries, local newspaper Gulf News said on Monday.
Putin arrived in the UAE after attending the annual meeting of the leaders of the 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in Australia.