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UAE Freezones Biz News Updates
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Time for business on final day of Sheikh Khalifa's UK visit
Britain's prime minister David Cameron greets UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed at 10 Downing Street.
After a day of ceremony on Tuesday, it was down to business for Sheikh
Khalifa on his historic state visit to Britain yesterday.
And business was brisk. It included a long day of meetings between the UAE
delegation and British officials at Buckingham Palace, the foreign office
and 10 Downing Street, residence of the British prime minister David
Cameron.
UAE and British officials signed three agreements for co-operation.
The two governments also announced they would jointly devote £2 million
(Dh11.4m) to tackle sexual violence in Somalia ahead of a conference in
London on the troubled African nation next Tuesday.
Both sides lauded the visit, which ended yesterday, as evidence of the close
and historic ties between the countries.
Mr Cameron said the relationship with the UAE was one of "lasting and
strategic importance" to the UK. Talks between he and Sheikh Khalifa focused
on ties and regional challenges facing both countries.
"The two leaders agreed that the relationship had developed significantly in
the past year, especially building a deeper and substantive defence
partnership and significant new commercial links," a spokesman for Mr
Cameron said.
"They discussed the action that the international community should take on
the most pressing issues in the [Arabian] Gulf and wider region including to
address the challenge of Iran's nuclear programme, to end the appalling and
dangerous conflict in Syria, and to bring new momentum to the peace process
between Israel and Palestine."
But it was not all business. Sheikh Khalifa laid a wreath in Westminster
Abbey's Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, and later had a jovial private meeting
with Prince Charles.
Earlier, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and the
British foreign secretary William Hague signed two agreements.
The "Dialogue of Values" will be supervised by the UAE-UK Taskforce, which
was set up in 2010, and seeks to strengthen cultural and political relations
between the two countries.
The "National Qualification Frameworks", was signed to promote and
facilitate students' exchange and recognition of the two countries'
respective educational qualifications.
Mr Hague said the agreements provided a "new forum" for exchanging ideas.
Sheikh Abdullah said they provided an opportunity to "advance new and
innovative" avenues of cooperation.
He and Mr Hague also discussed bilateral relations generally and regional
issues of mutual concern, Sheikh Abdullah said.
"We discussed how we can use this historic visit as a platform for further
growth in bilateral relations and how the UAE and the UK can work together
to tackle the appalling humanitarian disaster in Syria."
Mr Hague said the visit was evidence of the "close ties" between the two
countries and said the UK saw the UAE as an "essential ally".
"The UK has a long history of friendship and cooperation with the United
Arab Emirates. They are an essential ally in a region of critical
importance," Mr Hague said.
"Our countries work closely on Afghanistan and Syria. We share deep concern
about the escalating humanitarian crisis in Syria. And we remain fully
committed to bringing an end to the repression and human suffering caused by
Assad's brutal regime."
Earlier in the day, Sultan Ahmed Jaber, CEO of Masdar, Abu Dhabi's renewable
energy company, and Shaun Kingsbury, CEO of the British Green Investment
Bank, signed an agreement at Buckingham Palace that saw the two parties
agree to consider investments in green energy projects in Britain over the
next seven years
Masdar has already invested GBP500 million in the UK's London Arrat, the
world's largest offshore wind farm. Yesterday's agreement could see the
company invest even more heavily in what Mr Jaber called a collaborative
investment effort that will not only strengthen bilateral clean energy ties,
but "has the potential to pay healthy dividends for both countries."
The Green Investment Bank is a public company formed with GBP3 billion of UK
government money and set up to accelerate the UK's transition to a greener
economy.
The different agreements show the depth of UK-UAE bilateral relations, UAE
officials said yesterday.
Dr Anwar Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs and joint chairman
of the UAE-UK Taskforce, said the state visit had provided a "special
dimension" to the development of bilateral ties.
The UAE-UK Taskforce was set up in 2010 to improve bilateral relations.
Since then, the UK has moved up to become the UK's 13th largest export
market - up three places and a 9 per cent increase on 2011.
FCO officials say bilateral trade is on target to reach GBP12 billion by
2015, a target set by the Taskforce.
More than 100,000 Britons live and work in the UAE and around one million
visited the emirates in 2012.
The two-day state visit "has ticked the boxes", said Neil Partrick, an
Arabian Gulf specialist and visiting fellow with the Royal United Services
Institute.
"There has been a very large Emirati entourage of senior officials in
addition to the president responsible for key portfolios, whether its
diplomacy, whether its trade and business related issues," Mr Partrick said.
"Their interaction across the board with British officials, as well as the
highest level engagement of the Queen and the president will all have helped
deepening a historically close relationship."
Mr Cameron also raised British concerns with Sheikh Khalifa about
allegations of mistreatment by three Britons found guilty of drugs charges
in Dubai and sentenced to four years in jail in the UAE.
The issue has featured prominently in British media coverage of the visit,
with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, FCO, also saying it had pressed
UAE officials on the matter.
Police deny any wrongdoing and said they conducted an internal investigation
into the allegations that found them to be baseless.
May 2, 2013 |
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Courtesy The National
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