Putin cites Egypt talks on Gaza as reason for pushing back Moscow confab, but report says Saudi, UAE, Egyptian leaders had never confirmed they’d attend the event
The date for a planned Moscow summit on Arab politics came and went on Wednesday, after the Kremlin pushed off the event reportedly due to a paucity of commitments from Mideast leaders to attend it.
The failure to rally Arab leaders marked a decline in Russia’s influence in the region, amid a larger hit to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s clout following his 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
When calling off the meeting, Putin cited Monday’s confab in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on a postwar governance plan for the battered Gaza Strip.
“I did this because I don’t want to interfere with the process that, as we hope, has now been set in motion,” he said on Friday, referring to the then-upcoming peace summit.
The conference in Egypt drew scores of leaders from the Arab and Muslim worlds and Europe, as well as US President Donald Trump.
Put together on short notice, the Egypt summit contrasted with Putin’s effort, which failed to secure the pledged attendance of more than a smattering of Arab heads of state.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had confirmed he’d participate, as had the head of the Arab League. But the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt still had not signed on as of Tuesday, October 7, Bloomberg reported.
Sharaa traveled to Moscow on Wednesday anyway to meet with Putin, who secured significant influence in the Middle East through his 2015 intervention in the Syrian civil war. Russia supported longtime Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, who was overthrown last December by insurgents led by Sharaa’s Islamist forces.
Though the Assad regime has been toppled, Russia maintains military bases in Syria.
The resources Russia used to entrench its influence there, however, have been strained since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, starting a bloody ongoing war that has brought condemnations and sanctions from the West.
It’s also weakened close diplomatic ties with countries in Central Asia and the Caucasus, which distanced themselves from Russia after the Ukraine invasion, amid concerns over their own security going forward.
Russia may yet hold the Arab summit, which the Kremlin described as postponed rather than canceled and indicated may be held in November instead.
The delay also came as Trump appears to be losing patience with Moscow over the war in Ukraine and is renewing efforts to end that conflict now that he’s secured a ceasefire in Gaza and the return of the living hostages to Israel.
“Interestingly we made progress [on Ukraine] today, because of what’s happened in the Middle East,” Trump said Wednesday evening.
On Friday, the US leader is scheduled to host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. In advance of the meeting, Trump has suggested the US may finally sell Kyiv Tomahawk missiles, which would allow Ukraine to strike deeper into Russian territory than it’s been able to so far.
Trump also said on Wednesday that he’d convinced Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop buying Russian oil, though India itself neither confirmed nor denied the White House claim.
The US had levied a 25 percent tariff on Indian goods — in addition to another 25% tariff — as a punitive measure for New Delhi’s support of the Russian economy.
“Now I’ve got to get China to do the same thing,” Trump said, of India’s purported plan to stop buying Russian crude.
Agencies contributed to this report.
