Russia has been >working closely with a number of Arab countries in recent months. Rostec, the state-owned military industrial giant, announced its plans to produce a commercial plane, potentially in the UAE, during the Dubai air show on Sunday.
The industrial giant said it had discussed the potential collaboration with Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
"They [the UAE] want to create a large transport aircraft together with us, as well as a passenger jet on the basis of the MC-21 400. They have many wishes," said Sergey Chemezov, Rostec CEO, according to RT.
A Rostec spokesperson added it was too early to detail what a "joint production" would entail.
It could be the "assembly of completed MC-21 jetliners in the UAE to manufacturing components for jets that will be produced in Russia," according to a Bloomberg report.
Russia aims to increase exports of its new single-aisle airliner, the Irkut MC-21, as reported by Bloomberg.
Chemezov emphasized that the Middle East market is of "extreme importance" to the Russian state corporation, Arabian Business reported.
Chemezov: "The Middle East market is of 'extreme importance' to the Russian state corporation"
In an interview with Arabian Business, Chemezov said that the company's development strategy goes well beyond just the manufacturing. They plan to offer countries in the region its IT-solutions.
"In particular, we offer services of digitization and unification of control processes in the defense and civil spheres for the partner countries intelligences' services," he said.
Russia's partnerships with Arab countries expand well beyond aerospace
In September, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi >announced a finalized agreement with Russia to build a nuclear power plant in Dabaa, about 130 kilometers northwest of Cairo along the Mediterranean coast.
Negotiations for the project have been ongoing for two years.
In 2016, Russia revealed that it would lend Egypt $25 billion to build the nuclear power plant, Reuters reported. The two countries first agreed to start the project in 2015.