ABU DHABI (Reuters) – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will visit Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for talks with the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to secure more oil flows from the Gulf and increase pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin over Ukraine.
With Britain, like most countries in the West, grappling with rising energy prices, Johnson wants to encourage producers to increase production and secure other supplies to try to help consumers and reduce dependence on Russian exports.
So far, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, whose close relations with the United States are strained, have ignored Washington’s calls to increase oil production to tame high oil prices that threaten to trigger a post-invasion global recession. Russia.
“The world needs to get rid of Russian hydrocarbons and end Putin’s addiction to oil and gas,” Johnson said before their meetings. “Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the main international partners in this effort.”
The two Gulf states are among the few oil exporters in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and have the capacity to increase production and possibly offset Russian supply losses. But they tried to maintain a neutral position between Western allies and Moscow, their partner in the group of oil producers known as OPEC +.
(Reporting by Maha El Dahan in Dubai and Elizabeth Piper and William James in London)
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