President Vladimir Putin hailed Russia's ties with the United Arab Emirates on Friday as he met the leader of the oil-rich nation, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, in St.

Petersburg."The Emirates are a very good partner," Putin said in televised comments at the start of the meeting, which took place on the sidelines of an economic summit in Russia's second city.Putin thanked Al-Nahyan for the role the UAE has played in prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine and Russia and the United States.Al-Nahyan said he was in favor of "de-escalation" and a "political solution" to the Ukraine conflict during the talks, in which the pair discussed their countries' "strategic partnership," according to the UAE official news agency WAM.Russia and UAE have closely cooperated as members of the OPEC+ oil alliance and Dubai is one of the rare world capitals to have maintained direct flights to Moscow following the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.