The Kremlin wants Biden not to turn Saudi Arabia to Russia

Moscow-Kremlin said on Wednesday that President Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia will not be used to promote anti-Russian relations, as the United States is trying to convince Riad to increase oil production in the midst of rising prices. He said he wanted.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday that Biden would insist on increasing oil production and lowering gasoline prices from OPEC countries when he meets with leaders from Saudi Arabia’s Gulf countries this week.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Kremlin, is also the world’s second-largest oil exporter after Saudi Arabia, and Russia, the world’s largest exporter of natural gas, is the framework of the OPEC + group of world’s leading oil producers. He said he highly valued the cooperation with Saudi Arabia.

“We are within the framework of the OPEC + Agreement and are grateful for our work with partners, including key partners such as Saudi Arabia,” he said in a daily conference call with reporters.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov will attend the year-end press conference of Russian President Vladimirputin on December 23, 2021 in Moscow, Russia. (Evgenia Novozhenina / Reuters)

“We are very grateful for our relationship and interaction with Riad. We hope that the building and development of relationships between Riad and other world capitals will never be directed at us. . “

As the world faces the worst energy supply crisis since the Arab oil embargo in the 1970s, Biden has repeatedly urged OPEC + and its champion Saudi Arabia to raise oil production faster than the group has already done. I did.

However, the major Gulf producers have little reserve capacity.

Oil and gas exports, which make up a significant portion of Russia’s national budget revenues, are central to Moscow’s response to the sanctions imposed by the West on Ukraine’s conflict.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Friday that continued sanctions on Russia for the conflict in Ukraine could pose a catastrophic rise in energy prices to consumers around the world.

Putin said the surge in inflation has contributed to the global economic crisis by imposing sanctions on what Western nations call “special military operations” in Ukraine.

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