Germany and the UAE have reopened talks on an Extradition Treaty during the just concluded UAE-German Joint Commission held in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE Ministry of Justice proposed a bilateral extradition treaty and a draft document was forwarded to the German side, official sources confirmed yesterday.

The UAE side also proposed an agreement on juridical and judicial cooperation in civil and commercial matters for the service of summons, judicial documents, judicial commissions, execution of judgements and arbitral awards. A draft document was forwarded to the German side.

The fourth session of the UAE-German Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation took place in the capital on May 11 and 12, jointly chaired by ambassador Mohamed Khalifa bin Yousef Al Suwaidi, head of Department of Economic Affairs & International Cooperation at the Foreign Ministry of the UAE; and Volker Hahn, deputy director general at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Germany.

Significantly, security issues surfaced at the meetings with the UAE Ministry of Interior urging Germany to provide modern technology for national interior security forces.

This includes German standards for telecommunication and command & control systems for police forces, transfer of management knowledge of command & control systems, spy and detection equipment for criminal investigation and drug enforcement including monitoring and technical training for certain areas.

"Germany is among the few western countries to have a joint commission with the UAE and this is a special achievement," Dr. Alexander Muhlen, German ambassador to the UAE told Gulf News. "It is a declaration of mutual intent, with a framework created and this must be filled up," he added.

Although talks were held earlier for an Extradition Treaty between the two countries, no concrete developments took place. "This time, Germany will consider the proposal from the UAE."

Another area of cooperation which has reached a concrete level is in the field of telemedicine with feasibility studies for implementation of telemedicine by a visiting programme to a well-known German centre is to take place.