Nuclear deal warms up UAE and Canada ties

John Baird, right, the Canadian foreign minister, signed the treaty with his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in Ottawa on Tuesday. Chris Wattie / Reuters

The UAE has signed a nuclear treaty with Canada that paves the way for the country to export atomic material and technology to the Emirates.

The pact was accompanied by an announcement the UAE would reduce its visa fee for Canadians by a third, marking a thaw in relations after a two-year dispute over commercial aircraft landing rights.

"This pact is testimony to bilateral ties that are strong and getting ever stronger," said John Baird, the Canadian foreign minister, who signed the treaty with his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in the capital of Ottawa on Tuesday.

Two years ago, Canada rebuffed a request from the UAE for more landing rights for its two airlines at Canadian airports.

Soon after, the UAE expelled Canada from Camp Mirage, a staging base for Afghanistan operations, and introduced fees for Canadians seeking visas.

The rapprochement comes as the UAE proceeds with its ambitious nuclear programme, which will rely in part on Canadian supplies.

Canada is the world's second-biggest uranium producer, accounting for 22 per cent of global output. Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation, the Abu Dhabi-owned company overseeing the construction and operation of the plant, awarded a US$3 billion (Dh11.01bn) contract last month to suppliers in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Russia and France, as well as Canada's Uranium One.

Construction on the first of four 1,400-megawatt reactors in Baraka, 300km west of the capital, has also started.

The initial financing for the nuclear plant, valued at $20bn in a contract awarded to a Korean consortium in 2009, came this month in a $2bn export credit loan from the US.