Mohammad issues call for peace

Seoul: The UAE and South Korea called yesterday for international efforts to secure peace and stability that would protect development programmes around the world.

The call was issued during a meeting here between His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE and Ruler of Dubai and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.

The talks were the highlight of Shaikh Mohammad's state visit to the Asian country, which concluded yesterday with the signing of a number of trade and cultural agreements.

The Korean leader said the visit "would further develop the traditional UAE - Korean relations into strong, distinguished partnership in all domains, especially in culture, technology and investment," according to a statement, carried by WAM news agency.

The two leaders discussed a number of current regional and international issues.

They "agreed that international peace constitutes the protective umbrella for development projects and programmes aimed at improving living standards of peoples and promoting and enhancing concepts of peaceful co-existence and dialogue between cultures and nations regardless of their race and spectra," the statement said.

Writing in the Presidential Blue House' register, Shaikh Mohammad hoped "the talks would generate new positive outcome for greater mutual openness and cooperation in all walks of life."

Earlier, Shaikh Mohammad told Emirati media officials that the UAE was seeking to balance its relations with the outside world.

Shift

He said the "power balance is moving" and that there was a need to strengthen relations with East Asian countries, singling out South Korea, Japan and China, "in order to create the necessary balance in our relations with the East and West."

Relations with the West were already "strong", he said, pointing to the simultaneous visit of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the UAE Armed Forces, to the United States.

His visit to South Korea, Shaikh Mohammad said, "will encourage our companies to invest here and their companies to invest in the UAE."

South Korea, according to Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Economy, is one of the UAE's fastest growing trade partners. Trade between the two countries jumped almost 100 per cent in the past three years, she said.

The UAE is also the second-largest supplier of oil to South Korea, and most of the UAE's oil is imported by the East Asian country. The two countries' trade volume stood at $15.8 billion in 2006, and some 90 South Korean firms are currently operating in the UAE.

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Economy's 2006 Investment Environment Report, foreign direct investment in the UAE from the Asia pacific region grew by 19 per cent that year.

Shaikh Mohammad also said the UAE was working to update its plans and programmes.

With reference to the recently announced Federal Government Strategy, he said: "We are glad to have a strategy that covers the federal government and ministries. We are now at the beginning, and must identify our mistakes to avoid them later. We concentrate on investing in the human factor, and it is the duty of governments to serve their peoples."