Moscow’s new man arrives with a vision

Loveday Morris

• Last Updated: November 04. 2009 7:22PM UAE / November 4. 2009 3:22PM GMT

Abu Dhabi // Russia’s new ambassador to the UAE has outlined his vision of increased collaboration between the two countries in areas as diverse as investment, space, nuclear power, politics and the judiciary.

Andrew Andreev said a US$1 billion (Dh3.7 bn) fund for joint investments that was being discussed between Russia and the UAE was one example of the increased co-operation he envisaged.

It was too early, he said, to provide specific details of what potential ventures the fund would be used for. “We are having some consultations on this issue as some details still aren’t clear,” said Mr Andreev, who arrived in Abu Dhabi to take up his post on October 10 after four years as an ambassador in Qatar.

“It’s a common fund, with money from both sides to use for projects in the UAE and Russia, but it’s not formalised yet.”

The fund was one of the topics discussed at a meeting in Moscow between Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, in April.

The UAE will hold further talks this week with Igor Sechin, the Russian deputy prime minister, who is visiting the Emirates.

Mr Andreev said the total capital of the planned fund was still open to negotiation, but it was expected to be around $1bn. Any decision to back projects would be mutually agreed beforehand.

Marios Maratheftis, the head of regional research at Standard Chartered bank, said that although the size of the proposed fund was modest, the real benefit would be the acquisition of technological expertise.

“A fund of US$1bn is relatively small if you look at the level of investments in the UAE, but if it is used for strategic partnerships to import knowledge, then it could be significant,” he said.

Standard Chartered estimated that $38bn in foreign investments was made in the UAE in the first nine months of this year.

“This is a fast growing country, and even though growth will be slower in coming years it will still be significant,” Mr Maratheftis said.

“Aerospace is one of the industries that is expanding, and a lot of the co-operation we will see with other countries will be in expanding the knowledge base here and sharing expertise.”

Mr Andreev said Russia hoped to boost co-operation in the space and civil nuclear industries in particular. In light of the Emirates’ rapidly expanding space technology sector, and its planned civil nuclear programme, Russia wanted to share its years of experience in those areas with the UAE to forge closer links, Mr Andreev said. Russia has already collaborated with the UAE on projects in the UAE’s space sector, and provided equipment for DubaiSat-1, the country’s first satellite, which was launched in July.

The Emirates leads the Middle East in advances in space technology, with a Dh2.9bn Gulf space centre and satellite programme planned for Abu Dhabi.

Russia is yet to sign a deal with the UAE in the civil nuclear sector, although Mr Andreev said the US-UAE deal on civil nuclear co-operation, worth tens of billions of dollars, was not seen as a stumbling block. The UAE has similar agreements in place with Britain, South Korea and France.

“It’s not a competition between us and the United States and France. It’s a big field for all countries with expertise, so I think we can find something interesting,” he said.

Russia was one of several countries in negotiations with the UAE over potential contracts to build the country’s first nuclear power station and was involved in “good consultations” with the UAE on how to use peaceful nuclear energy, he added.

Mr Andreev said as well as developing industrial ties, there was common ground between Russia and the UAE in the political arena, where the two countries saw “eye-to-eye” on many key regional issues, in particular Iran’s nuclear programme.

“We have regular discussions and consultations on political issues and, of course, we are discussing the situation around Iran and the Iranian nuclear programme,” said Mr Andreev.

“We – and the UAE also share our views, as we understand – think, that sanctions are usually not effective. We have many examples which show us that sanctions aren’t working to give us any result. Moreover, sanctions often give us more complicated situations.”

He said Russia would only support sanctions as a last resort. “We still see many opportunities to continue negotiations and dialogue,” he added, and pointed out that talks were ongoing over a deal that would see Iran export uranium to Russia for further enrichment.

Russia, he said, had raised the issue of the disputed islands of Abu Musa and the Greater and Lesser Tunbs with Iran, which forcibly took control of them from the UAE in the 1970s.

Russia was “supportive of the UAE and their efforts to try and find the solution to this issue by peaceful means and negotiations”, Mr Andreev added.

The UAE and Russia were also pushing for increased co-operation in the judicial sector, with an extradition treaty among several legal issues under negotiation. The agreement was likely to be finalised next year, Mr Andreev said.

He estimated that around 12,000 Russians lived in the UAE, about 80 per cent in Dubai and Sharjah.

“We have a great community here. We have many Russians here and we have more and more Emirati citizens in Russia. Sometimes there are legal problems so it’s necessary to have mechanisms to solve these problems.”

But any treaty would have no bearing on the case of the assassination of the former Chechen warlord Sulim Yamadayev in Dubai this year.

UAE authorities reportedly called for the extradition of a Russian member of parliament accused of masterminding the plot, but Mr Andreev said no formal request for his extradition was received.



lmorris@thenational.ae