Putin Calls UAE ‘Suitable’ Venue for Upcoming Meeting with Trump

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as “one of the suitable” locations for a future meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.

“We have many friends who are ready to help us organize events of this kind. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” Putin told journalists in the Kremlin following a meeting with his Emirati counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who arrived in Moscow on an official visit, The Caspian Post reports citing foreign media.

“I think we will decide, but this would be one of the suitable, quite suitable locations,” Putin said, expressing that both Moscow and Washington have shown interest in such a meeting, with who initiated it being “no longer important.”

With regard to a trilateral meeting that could also include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin said that he has nothing against such a meeting, but reaffirmed the need to create the necessary conditions for such talks.

US authorities have not immediately commented on Putin’s remarks.

Putin’s remarks came just a couple of hours after Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov announced that Moscow and Washington reached a deal in principle to hold a meeting between Putin and Trump “in the coming days.”

Ushakov said that the two sides also agreed, in principle, on the venue of the talks but that details would be given later. He particularly highlighted next week as a target date for the summit.

The summit between Putin and Trump would be the first face-to-face meeting between the serving Russian and US presidents since a June 2021 meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, between Putin and then-US President Joe Biden.