Shaikh Mohammad meets US officials

Washington: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will address the World Economic Forum on the Middle East in Dead Sea, Jordan today.

Shaikh Mohammad will speak on leadership and education in the Arab world, and is expected to announce an initiative at the forum.

More than 1,000 delegates, including 16 heads of state, gathered for the two-day annual conference held this year in Jordan.

On Friday, Shaikh Mohammad on Friday his meetings with senior current and former US officials.

Shaikh Mohammad is accompanied by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister and senior officials.

Shaikh Mohammad met with United States Vice-President Dick Cheney at Vice-President's residence in Washington, D.C. Present were Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed, Elizabeth Cheney, daughter of Cheney, Saqr Gobash, UAE Ambassador to the US and Yousuf Al Otaiba, Director of International Affairs Department at the Crown Prince's Court. Cheney held a luncheon in honour of Shaikh Mohammad and Shaikh Abdullah.

Key meetings

Later Shaikh Mohammad, in presence of Shaikh Abdullah, met with United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson, Jr at the Treasury in Washington, D.C. and Ambassador R. Nicholas Burns, Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, at the State Department in Washington, D.C.
Shaikh Mohammad also met separately with a number of former US senior officials in Washington, D.C.

These include Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor to United States President George W. Bush, former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, former United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Shaikh Mohammad also met Senator Barack Obama (Democrat, of Illinois) and Democratic Presidential Candidate and John Sexton, President, New York University.
Shaikh Mohammad also met with Senator Hillary Clinton, the Republican Senator from Nebraska Chuck Hagel, the Democrat of California and the Chairman, United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Tom Lantos and Democrat from New York Gary Ackerman.

Later, Shaikh Mohammad attended the inaugural meeting of the US-UAE Business Council at the the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington.

Shaikh Mohammad expressed hopes that the recently launched Council, a collaboration of leading companies in the US and UAE committed to expanding commercial ties between the two countries, would generate momentum to the already strong ties.