The United Arab Emirates plans to increase its trade turnover with Russia to $20 billion in the next five years, the country’s Foreign Trade Minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi has announced.

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“We are working with the Russian side to increase trade turnover to $20 billion over the next five years and to continue investing in other areas [of economic cooperation],” Al Zeyoudi told RIA news agency on Saturday during a plenary session of the Expo-2020 international forum in the UAE, which had been postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the official, “relations between Abu Dhabi and Moscow are strategic.” He noted that up to 90% of all Russian investments in the Arab world are made in the UAE. The UAE also significantly invests in Russia, making up some 80% of all Arab investments in Russia’s economy.

“If we are talking about the number of Russian companies in the UAE, it has reached almost 4,000,” Al Zeyoudi stated.

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According to the minister, the UAE is already investing in several Russian sectors, including the petrochemical industry, oil and gas, the automotive industry and ports, and it plans to broaden this list.

In 2020, the trade turnover between the two states reached $3.3 billion, and in the first 10 months of 2021 its volume exceeded $4 billion, reaching a new record, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said last week. According to the Ministry of Economics, this year Russia mainly exported mineral products, precious stones and metals to the UAE, while Russian imports from the Arab country included machinery, equipment and vehicles.

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