Dubai: A joint UAE-UK task force has been set up to capitalise on emerging opportunities.
In the first of four Foreign and Commonwealth Office speeches, William Hague, Foreign Secretary, announced that the UK and UAE will establish a taskforce.
“I can announce today that the Prime Minister has launched a joint taskforce with the United Arab Emirates as part of our efforts to elevate links with the Gulf. It will develop options for strengthening our ties across the board…,” he said from the FCO in London.
Hague has held the post for the past seven weeks.
Tangible developments, he said, should be the product of elevated links with any particular country, including for example: “the establishment of a British higher education campus there or new education initiatives, diversified sporting and cultural links, new forms of exchange between Parliament and civil society to fit the circumstances of that particular country, cooperation on military training and exercises, a visa regime that reflects the totality of UK interests including the importance of the relationship, and British Ministers working with British businesses on aspects of that relationship.”
His speech, entitled “Britain’s Foreign Policy in a Networked World”, also mentioned the Gaza flotilla, in the context of how relations between states are no longer monopolised by Foreign Secretaries or Prime Ministers.
“There is now a mass of connections between individuals, civil society, businesses, pressure groups and charitable organizations, which are also part of the relations between nations and which are being rapidly accelerated by the internet. The recent Gaza flotilla crisis illustrated how collections of individuals from different countries can come together to try to force Governments to change course and reach a global audience in doing so,” Hague said.
