Russia-Kuwait relations

The Soviet Union and the Kuwait established diplomatic relations on March 11, 1963. In November 1991, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the current Emir of Kuwait, visited Moscow as part of the delegation of Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. On December, 28 1991, Kuwait declared its official recognition of the Russian Federation as the legal successor of the Soviet Union.

Russia and Kuwait maintain stable political dialogue. Kuwait usually supports Russia’s initiatives and nominations to posts at the UN and other international organisations. The two countries hold regular political consultations and exchange delegations at different levels.

In October 2013, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait, visited Moscow, where he had a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Between February 18 and 20, 2014, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Kuwait for the third round of strategic dialogue between Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Sergey Lavrov had meetings with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah.

On March 25−26, 2014, Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov attended the 25th summit of the Arab League in Kuwait City. On the sidelines of that summit, Mikhail Bogdanov had a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah.

On May 19, 2015, Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov held consultations with Deputy Foreign Minister of Kuwait Khaled Al-Jarallah in Moscow.

On November 9−10, 2015, Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah became the first Emir of Kuwait to visit Russia. On November 10, Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah held talks with President of Russia Vladimir Putin in Sochi.

On April 5, 2016, Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov visited Kuwait City, where had a meeting with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah and held talks with Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah.

On May 25−26, 2016, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah was in Moscow for the fourth ministerial meeting within the framework of the Russia-GCC strategic dialogue. The Kuwaiti minister had a bilateral meeting with Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the Russia-GCC event.

On March 29, 2017, Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov and Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Al-Jarallah met on the sidelines of the Arab League summit in Jordan.

On April 18, 2017, Mikhail Bogdanov and Khaled al-Jarallah met in Moscow for a regular round of Russian-Kuwaiti political consultations.

On August 27−28, 2017, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Kuwait as part of a regional tour. He had a meeting with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and held talks with First Deputy Prime Minister as well as Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah.

The parliaments of Russia and Kuwait maintain regular ties. In June 2007, a delegation of the Kuwaiti National Assembly led by Deputy Speaker Mohammed Al-Busairy visited Russia. In June 2010, three Kuwaiti MPs and several members of the National Assembly staff came to Moscow for a meeting of the Asian Parliamentary Assembly. In March 2011, a delegation of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Entrepreneurship and Property visited Kuwait.

Russia and Kuwait have signed and ratified the Agreement on Mutual Promotion and Protection of Investment (1994) and the Agreement on Double Taxation (1999). The Agreement on Air Communications came into effect back in 1978.

Several bilateral documents were signed during the Emir of Kuwait’s visit to Russia in November 2015, including an intergovernmental agreement on visa-free travel by the holders of diplomatic, official/service and special passports; a memorandum of understanding between the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Kuwaiti National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature on cooperation in culture and arts; a memorandum on cooperation between the Russian Ministry of Transport and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Communications; a memorandum of intent on military and technical cooperation  between Rosoboronexport and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Defence; a memorandum of understanding between Gazprom and Kuwait Oil Company; as well as an agreement between the Russia Direct Investment Fund and Kuwait Investment Authority on increasing joint investment in Russia.

Russian-Kuwaiti trade and economic relations are regulated by the 1985 agreement, which has a most favoured nation clause.

According to Russia’s Federal Customs Service, bilateral trade equalled $480 million in 2016, an increase of 18 percent from $406 million in 2015. Russian exports to Kuwait were worth $479.9 million and imports from Kuwait $0.1 million.

In the first six months of 2017, bilateral trade reached $339 million, largely due to a 43 percent increase in Russian metal deliveries to Kuwait.  

The Intergovernmental Russian-Kuwaiti Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was established in November 1994.

The commission convened for the first time in Moscow on August 19, 2002. It was decided to create three subcommissions: on cooperation in energy, trade and economy, and in science and technology. The second meeting of the commission was held in Kuwait City in early November 2006 and the third meeting in Moscow on August 2−3, 2010. The commission’s subcommissions convened in Kuwait City in September 2011. On May 15, 2014, the commission’s co-chairs met in Moscow on the sidelines of the 14th International Energy Forum. The fourth meeting of the Russian-Kuwaiti commission was held in Kuwait City between March 17 and 19, 2015. The fifth meeting was held in Moscow on April 22, 2016.

The commission is co-chaired by Far East Development Minister Alexander Galushka (from December 2013) and Kuwaiti Oil Minister and Minister of Water and Electricity Essam Al-Marzooq (from December 2016).

In April 2007, a delegation from the Russian-Arab Business Council led by the Russian co-chair, Vladimir Yevtushenkov, visited Kuwait. The delegates signed a protocol on cooperation between the Russian and Kuwaiti chambers of commerce and industry and reached an agreement in principle to establish the Russian-Kuwaiti Business Council. The council is co-chaired by Yury Sharov, Head of Engineering Division at Inter RAO UES, and prominent Kuwaiti businessman Fouad Al-Ghanim.

In September 2010, Russia and Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding and cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy on the sidelines of the IAEA’s 54th General Conference in Vienna.

Between September 10 and 13, 2015, Special Presidential Representative for cooperation with Gas Exporting Countries Forum and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gazprom Viktor Zubkov visited Kuwait at the invitation of Ali Al-Omair, the Oil Minister and Minister of State for the National Assembly of Kuwait. Viktor Zubkov also attended the opening of the second SPE Kuwait Oil & Gas Show and Conference. 

On January 22, 2017, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Kuwaiti Oil Minister and Minister of Water and Electricity Essam Al-Marzooq met in Vienna on the sidelines of the first meeting of the Joint OPEC-Non-OPEC Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), which was established to monitor compliance with voluntary commitments to rebalance the global oil market through an adjustment in combined production.

On March 25−26, 2017, Alexander Novak was in Kuwait City, where he and Essam Al-Marzooq co-chaired the second JMMC meeting. The committee members led by Essam Al-Marzooq paid a courtesy call on the Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Alexander Novak and his Kuwaiti counterpart also held bilateral talks on the sidelines of the second JMMC meeting. Preparations for Novak’s visit to Kuwait included a business mission led by Vadim Marshavin, Director of the Energy Ministry’s Department of International Cooperation. The delegation included representatives from Gazprom, Rosatom and GIRS Service.

On July 24, 2017, Essam Al-Marzooq attended the fourth JMMC meeting held in St Petersburg. He and Alexander Novak held a regular round of talks on the sidelines of the meeting.

In 2012, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) established a partnership under which KIA can take part in the RDIF’s automatic co-investment mechanism. In keeping with the agreement that was signed during the Kuwaiti Emir’s visit to Russia in November 2015, KIA decided to double its financial contribution to its partnership with the RDIF from $500 million to $1 billion for financing projects in Russia.

Kuwait has expressed willingness to build up investment in the oil and gas and other Russian industries, including in infrastructure projects such as the construction of roads and railways, airports, logistics hubs, power stations and other utilities, as well as oil production and processing facilities.

Russian-Kuwaiti cooperation in culture, science and education is rather limited, including in connection with the specific spiritual and cultural life and the lack of a Russian cultural centre in Kuwait.

Kuwait is one of the countries that can send its young people to Russia to receive higher education on federal budget scholarships in accordance with a 1996 government resolution. Since Kuwait did not use up its quota for the past years, the allocation of scholarships to it was suspended from the 2014/2015 academic year. Russian citizens receive education in Kuwait where they go at the invitation of the foreign languages centre at Kuwait University.

In 2001, the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University and Kuwait University’s philology department signed an agreement on academic cooperation, which provides for exchanging students and members of the faculty. In late September until early October 2013, a delegation from Kuwait University visited several Russian universities, including the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry and St Petersburg State University.

The Treasures of the World: Jewellery of India under the Grand Moguls exhibition from the National Museum of Kuwait was on display in the Moscow Kremlin Museum in February 2009 and in the St Petersburg Hermitage in August 2009. The exhibition comprised over 400 jewellery items dating back to the age of the Great Moguls from the personal collection of Sheikh Nasser, Minister of the Ruler’s Court Diwan Amiri and the eldest son of the Emir of Kuwait, and his wife. The opening ceremony in Moscow was attended by the Kuwaiti Minister of Information.

In February 2014,         Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, President of the Kuwait Olympic Committee, the Olympic Council of Asia and the Association of National Olympic Committees, attended the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee and the opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. The Sheikh was accompanied by a large Kuwaiti delegation.

Kuwait City hosted concerts by the Russkaya Volya (Russian Will) Cossack song and dance ensemble in December 2013 and May 2015, as well as exhibitions of works by members of the Russian Artists Union in April 2014 and March 2015. In December 2014, Kuwaitis enjoyed performances by the Moskvich (Muscovite) children’s dance company. Russian folk instruments quartet Parafraz (Paraphrase) gave concerts in Kuwait in May 2015. The same month, Soviet and Russian war films were screened in Kuwait City during the Russian Cinema Week, which was held as part of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Victory Day. The Igor Moiseyev Sate Academic Folk Dance Ensemble gave performances in Kuwait in November 2015.

In December 2015, Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al-Sabah, Kuwait Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs, attended the 4th St Petersburg International Cultural Forum, during which he invited Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky to visit Kuwait City.

Vladimir Medinsky visited Kuwait on March 27−28, 2016. He had talks with Emir Sheikh Sabah IV Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Prime Minister Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah and First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah. Vladimir Medinsky also held talks with Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al-Sabah, and attended the opening ceremony of Visit Russia, a branch of the national tourism office in the Middle East headquartered in Dubai, as well as Russian Film Week.  

The Russian-Kuwaiti Friendship Society, which was established in August 2014, is co-chaired by diplomat and academic Oleg Peresypkin.

In October 2014, Kuwait reaffirmed its participation in the Russia – Islamic World Strategic Vision Group, which was established in 2006 and suspended its activities during the Arab Spring. Dr Adel Al Falah, Deputy Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, attended the group’s meeting in Moscow on June 11−12, 2015, as well as its international conference Islamic Religion Against Extremism, which was held on October 5−6, 2015.