President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s two-day state visit to the UK will focus on further building and strengthening bilateral relationship with the UK at all levels.
The emphasis is not just on bilateral trade and education, but also on regional and global security. In March this year, a high-level delegation from the UAE Ministry of Interior visited the Security & Policing Exhibition, the UK’s premier security and law enforcement exhibition held in London. On this occasion, leading ministry officials got insight into the newest technologies and discussed prospects of exchanging security expertise. The UK security firms active in the UAE are Group 4 Securicor, Neptune Maritime Security, Securitas, Erinys International, Aegis Defence Services, Hart Security Limited, Olive Group and others. Among them Ultra Electronics provides training to all recruits of the UAE army and QinetiQ delivers air traffic surveillance systems to the UAE and is also working on developing military robots.
In February this year, the UAE and the UK discussed their plans about the Typhoon combat aircraft. Last November, the two countries had discussed their plans to establish a defence partnership around BAE Systems-built Typhoon fighter jets. It was decided that the two countries would sign a Dh36.8 billion deal and the UK would provide the UAE armed forces with 40 Typhoon aircraft.
In January this year, the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation supported 120 British security companies to take part in the Intersec 2013 exhibition in Dubai to identify opportunities.
Last year, British Trade Minister Lord Green set up a Middle East Task Force in the wake of the Arab Spring to supply Middle East countries, in particular the Gulf states, with UK security services. “The suggested key markets for the task force to focus on would be, apart from post-unrest Arab states, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait,” Lord Green was quoted as saying.
— GN Focus Report