Shaikh Khalifa’s UK visit reaffirms close ties

This week’s state visit by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to the UK is an important affirmation of the close relations that exist between the two countries. The state visit is the high point of a continuing process of institutionalisation of relations between UAE and the UK, which share many interests and are active partners in multilateral political and regional projects. During the visit, Shaikh Khalifa will be hosted by Queen Elizabeth, and will call on Prime Minister David Cameron. This is the first state visit to the UK since the visit of Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1989, and it follows the visit to the UAE by the Queen and Prince Philip in 2010, when the two nations reaffirmed their 1971 Treaty of Friendship.

It is important that the UAE and UK have established institutional structures that allow their relationship to work. The UK-UAE Taskforce was set up in 2010 by Cameron and Shaikh Khalifa and holds regular meetings at a ministerial level. For example, at its ninth meeting this January, topics acted on included development in Afghanistan, Yemen, Palestine and Pakistan; working together to improve stability in the Middle East, particularly in Syria, Yemen and Somalia; and the UK commended the UAE’s initiative of creating the International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism.

In addition, the countries share substantial commercial interests. Bilateral trade is just above £11 billion (Dh61.50 billion) and is expected to increase, while the UAE has massive investments in the UK with a value of more than £5 billion, including those of the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) in the North Sea, and the Dubai Ports International in London Gateway, one of the biggest projects in the UK with 35,000 jobs. In addition to all this activity, officials on both sides have said that they hope to introduce a long-awaited reciprocal visa regime later, if not during this state visit. Nonetheless, this week, the heads of state and government will be able to mark a renewed closeness of purpose in their relationship.