UAE and Britain to boost ties further

The UAE-British Teamwork held its 8th meeting here at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday, chaired by both Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, and Alistair Burt, Minister for Middle East Affairs, South Asia at the British Foreign Ministry. Dr Hadif bin Jowan Al Dhahiri, Minister of Justice was also present. Both sides welcomed in a statement the growing relations between the UAE and the UK, indicating that they were looking forward to further boosting cooperation in next months and years. They also welcomed effective cooperation in the areas of defence and security. The two sides welcomed the setting up of Centre for Combating Extreme Violence, to be hosted by Abu Dhabi. They expressed the importance and functions of the centre. The UK stressed commitment to recruit experts to work at the centre. The meeting also discussed how best to ease travel procedures between the two countries, citing that the visitors to the UAE from the UK were higher compared to any other country, while about 190,000 Emiratis had visited the UK in the same year. Gargash and Burt hoped for early signing of the Criminal Extradition Agreement between the UAE and UK. They also discussed issues of illegal financing. The two ministers said there were many opportunities that could bolster trade and investment between the two countries. The UAE is currently the biggest host for the UK exports in the Middle East and North Africa. The two countries are working to reach the trade exchange volume of Dh65 billion by 2015. Regarding the clean energy, both sides exchanged views on next UN talks about the climate change, known as the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 8th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which will be held in Doha in November. Dr Gargash and Burt expect the conference to be successful under Qatari leadership. The two sides welcomed convention of ‘Abu Dhabi Sustainable Week’ during January 2013. They agreed that the event would be a platform for business sector leaders and governments to work together to tackle one of the greatest challenges in the world.