Russia – GCC Trade Grows 6% Over Past Year: Russian Foreign Minister

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has managed to maintain positive dynamics in mutual trade despite difficult geopolitical conditions, says Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said trade turnover between Russia and GCC countries grew more than 6 percent in the past year.

Trade turnover increased by more than 6 percent compared to the previous year, and exceeded a massive $11 Billion. “Of course, trade is not developing evenly with every country here, but the overall trends are positive,” Lavrov highlighted during the sixth round of talks with the representatives of the GCC in Moscow. 

Recently, Saudi Arabia and Russia made the decision to make cuts on the crude oil output.

He noted a significant increase in bilateral trade over the 12 years of the Russia-GCC cooperation format. “Russia and the Gulf countries have all the necessary mechanisms to successfully address the common challenges we face, to promote mutually beneficial partnership, and to put it on a systematic strategic basis.” 

Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at The Washington Institute, told Arab News that Russia’s trade with the GCC was $3 Billion a year in 2016 and $5 Billion in 2021. She highlighted that the closest relationship has been with the UAE, with whom Russia sealed a strategic partnership in June 2018. 

Borshchevskaya explained that from the Kremlin’s perspective, an important aspect of the trade relationship is commercial, but there’s a political perspective as well. “It needs someone to finance Syria’s reconstructions, and it’s been clear to the Kremlin for a long time now that the West was not going to pay for it. So it has been looking at the Gulf as a chief financer.” 

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Maxim Suchkov, director of the Institute for International Studies at MGIMO-University in Moscow, pointed out that trade turnover between Russia and the UAE reached $3,769 Billion in 2021 – a 86.03 percent increase compared to the same period in 2020. He believes Russia sees the GCC as a group of “fast-developing” nations. The analyst said the Kremlin knows there’s a lot to learn in doing business, tech development and decreasing dependence on energy. 

Furthermore, Russia also knows that the GCC holds the political key to stability and prosperity in the Middle East, and upholds regional partnerships.