Brown aims to expand ties in renewable energy, trade

Abu Dhabi: British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will visit the UAE on Monday and Tuesday on the final leg of his tour of the Gulf countries which also took him to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, a senior diplomat said on Sunday.

"The Prime Minister will be accompanied by Lord Mandelson, Secretary of State for Business, and E.D. Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, who will have meetings with their ministerial counterparts and undertake a number of separate meetings," British ambassador to the UAE Edward Oakden told reporters on Sunday.

Brown will also be accompanied by a business delegation of senior CEOs representing leading British companies and representatives of leading British universities.

This is the first visit by a British Prime Minister to the UAE since December 2006.

"The fact that these two ministers are coming is an indication of the focus of the visit, which has been planned for some months and started well before the present global financial turmoil," Oakden said.

New relationship

The British ambassador said the visit is aimed at building up a new relationship for a new century. "For over 200 years, Britain have had a long a deep association with this country and this region, of which we are tremendously proud."

He stressed that Britain wants to expand substantial relations in hydrocarbon matters to renewable energy, where it looks forward to developing relationships with the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar).

Oakden said the British Prime Minister is not suggesting to the GCC leaders a specific bailout package to head off the global financial crisis.

On trade with the UAE, the ambassador said it increased by 40 per cent in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year.

The UK's exports to the UAE reached over Dh20 billion, while imports were Dh7 billion.

He said the Britain is very welcoming of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and investments from the region.