Prime Minister Orpo pays working visit to United Arab Emirates
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo cultivated political and economic relations between Finland and the United Arab Emirates during a working visit on 13–15 January. The programme for his visit included meetings with the President and Prime Minister of the UAE and with several ministers. His visit also coincided with the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Finland and the UAE. Prime Minister Orpo was accompanied on the visit by a business delegation put together by Business Finland.
Prime Minister Orpo met with Emirati President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Tuesday 14 January and with Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on Monday 13 January. Prime Minister Orpo’s visit also included meetings with several sectoral ministers of the UAE. Prime Minister Orpo spoke with Emirati Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Education Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of Economy Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Climate Change and Environment Amna bint Abdullah Al Dahak, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Economy Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi and Minister of State for Defence Affairs Mohamed Mubarak Fadhel Al Mazrouei.
Discussions focused on the good relations between our countries and our common will to expand cooperation and trade in different sectors. Topical international issues, such as the situation in the Baltic Sea, were also addressed in the discussions.
“The United Arab Emirates is developing quickly, and the country has very ambitious goals in areas such as climate change mitigation and digitalisation. This trip showed that Finnish companies have even more expertise to offer in these key areas than before,” said Prime Minister Orpo.
The Prime Minister and the members of the business delegation also met with key representatives of the United Arab Emirates Chambers of Commerce, the energy sector and the aviation sector.
The United Arab Emirates is already the largest destination for Finnish exports in the Gulf and Middle East region. There is still potential to increase our economic cooperation, especially in areas such as new technologies and digitalisation, the circular economy, the built environment and infrastructure, clean energy production, education and healthcare.
Prime Minister Orpo was an invited guest at the opening of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, an annual international event promoting sustainable development, together with the heads of state of several other countries. Prime Minister Orpo delivered one of the keynote speeches at the opening, where he highlighted a number of global challenges related to climate change and biodiversity loss, along with opportunities to respond to them using new technologies such as artificial intelligence.
“We are witnessing a technological breakthrough that is changing the way we approach the challenges of the century. Artificial intelligence has the potential to radically transform the way we produce, consume and distribute energy,” Prime Minister Orpo said in his speech.
At the opening event, Prime Minister Orpo also had the opportunity to meet with the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
During the visit, Prime Minister Orpo inaugurated the new premises of the Embassy of Finland in Abu Dhabi together with Emirati Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaab.
The delegation accompanying Prime Minister Orpo on the visit was put together by Business Finland and consisted of representatives from the following companies and associations:
Aalto University Executive Education Ltd, Betolar Plc, Caprice Ltd, Creowave Ltd, Education House Finland Ltd, EduCluster Finland Ltd, Finnvera Plc, Fintraffic Air Navigation Services Ltd, Finland Chamber of Commerce, KONE Corporation, Mirasys VMS Ltd, Nestor Cables Ltd, Nokia Corporation, Nurminen Logistics Plc, Nuuka Solutions Ltd, Patria ISP Ltd, ReOrbit Ltd, Tampere University Foundation, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Temet Group Ltd, Unikie Ltd, VETQA Finland/Omnia Education Partnerships Ltd, Wärtsilä Corporation and Xiphera Ltd.
Inquiries: Marja Koskela, Diplomatic Adviser to the Prime Minister, tel. +358 295 160 978 and Anne Sjöholm, Head of Communications for International Affairs, tel. +358 40 537 07 33