UAE, Japan discuss comprehensive strategic partnership developments

Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, met with the Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Friday to discuss the implementation of joint projects and programmes under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Initiative.

The visit to Japan is part of efforts to strengthen the enduring relationship between the two countries, and their aspirations to achieve sustainable economic growth, and to enhance the prospects for joint cooperation and ways to develop it in various fields within the framework that was launched during the visit of His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, to Japan in September 2022.

During the meeting, which was also attended by Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and Shihab Al Fahim, UAE Ambassador to Japan, Dr. Al Jaber conveyed greetings from President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to the Japanese Prime Minister, along with his best wishes for continued progress and prosperity for Japan and its people.

Dr. Sultan Al Jaber also met with Kamikawa Yoko, Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ken Saito, Minister of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Taro Kono, Minister for Digital Transformation, and Yoshimasa Hayashi, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Japan as well as Chief Executive Officers of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Ineos, Mitsui & Co., Inpex, Jira, Itochu, Hitachi, and SoftBank Group.

He discussed the importance of securing energy supplies to benefit from artificial intelligence tools and solutions in order to improve the performance of the energy sector and raise its efficiency, in addition to stimulating and encouraging innovation, which helps to explore, develop and apply more solutions to stimulate low emission economic growth, and supporting the achievement of the goals of the “UAE Consensus” reached during the Conference of Parties “COP28”.

He highlighted as well that the UAE adopted from an early stage the development and implementation of clean energy projects locally, regionally and globally, and called for attracting more investments in the energy sector to meet the growing global demand for it.

The UAE is a source of about 60 per cent of foreign direct investment flows to Japan from the Middle East during the year 2023, while the UAE attracted about 82 per cent of the total Japanese investments in the Middle East countries during the same year (an increase of 71 per cent from the year 2022), mainly covering diverse sectors such as technology, renewable energy and transportation.

The total trade exchange between the two countries in 2023 amounted to about $47.4 billion (including petroleum products), while non-oil trade exchange amounted to about $15.6 billion during 2023, achieving a growth of 6.1 per cent compared to 2022.

The UAE is considered as the first trading partner to Japan in terms of exports and imports to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, as the country receives 47 per cent of Japan’s exports to the GCC countries.