London: The historic ties between the UAE and the United Kingdom will get a significant boost on Tuesday when President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan begins a two-day state visit here, the first for a UAE President in 24 years.
Unique ties
The Presidential visit, the first since the visit of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1989, comes upon an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II and at a time when both sides seem intent on developing their unique ties even further.
“It is testament not only to the deep and historic ties between the UAE and the UK, but also to the immense opportunities that exist in continued cooperation between our two countries,” Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, said in a statement carried by WAM on Monday.
Issues of mutual interest
In addition to the Queen, Shaikh Khalifa will be meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron and other officials. The agenda includes a number of issues of mutual interests such as the Middle East peace process, military and security cooperation and ways to strengthen trade, business and investment relations, UK ambassador to the UAE Dominic Jermey was quoted by WAM as saying. He described the visit as “extraordinary and historic.”
Recent figures show that trade between the two countries is expected to reach the Dh70 billion mark in 2015. The UAE is the UK’s largest import market in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.
Also, there are 170 flights weekly between the two countries.
Meanwhile, more than 100,000 British expatriates live in the UAE and some million British tourists visit the UAE annually. More than 50,000 Emiratis visit the UK every year.
“The UAE is committed to further building and strengthening its bilateral relationship with the UK on all levels, with a particular focus on trade, regional and global security and education,” Shaikh Abdullah said. “There is an ample room to achieve more,” he added.
Queen Elizabeth made her first visit to the UAE in 1979 where she attended the inauguration of the Dubai World Trade Centre and Jebel Ali Port. Her last visit was in 2010.
