Dubai government-controlled port operator, DP World, is looking at multiple opportunities to expand into the Russian market as part of a joint venture set up earlier this year to invest $2bn in the country.

“We have looked at three locations in Russia,’’ DP World’s group chairman and chief executive Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem told a press conference. The locations include Vladivostok in the Far East of Russia, the Baltic and the Black Sea, he added.

DP World and the state-owned Russian Direct Investment Fund in January had agreed to form the joint venture DP World Russia with a mandate to target investments in marine, dry ports and logistics infrastructure in different parts of Russia. DP World owns an 80 per cent stake in the joint venture while the rest is held by the Russian fund.

We are still identifying locations and “we are very optimistic about the Russian market,” Sulayem said.

DP World and its partners are also planning to invest $1.9bn in China port terminals in the next five years as part of a push by the UAE and China to enhance trade and economic ties.

The port operator, which has a portfolio of more than 65 marine terminals across six continents, owns stakes in three Chinese ports of Qingdao, Tianjin and Yantai, according to company website.

DP world, which is among the world’s top port operators is expects to generate $1bn across six port concessions in India, where it has already invested some $1.2bn in capital over the past few years, the company said in February.

In November, DP World acquired Associated British Ports’ 49 per cent stake in DP World Southampton, making it the sole owner of the port. Under the deal, the company also got an extension in its operating license for the UK port until 2047.

Southampton is the UK’s second largest container terminal, handling more than 1.5 million twenty-foot equivalent units a year. DP World has also acquired Dubai’s Jebel Ali freezone and a terminal in Turkey this year.