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Abdulla Shahid will on Friday travel to the UAE on his first foreign trip since becoming president of the UN General Assembly in a push for climate action at Expo 2020 Dubai.
Mr Shahid will speak about climate change and biodiversity at four Expo events and meet UAE officials, local UN staff and representatives for youth and women's issues at the start of a foreign trip that also includes Serbia and the Maldives, his homeland.
His “engagements in the United Arab Emirates align with his priorities on delivering urgent climate action, addressing the needs of the planet, recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and rebuilding sustainably,” his spokeswoman Monica Grayley said.
In his four-day stop in the Emirates, Mr Shahid will also meet officials from the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency and visit International Humanitarian City, a logistics hub for aid workers in Dubai.
The visit, funded by the UAE, comes before the Cop26 UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, where signatories to the 2015 Paris climate accord will announce their pledges to cut emissions of planet-heating gases.
Expo 2020 Dubai opens its doors to the public on Friday, with more than 190 country pavilions, 200 eateries and up to 60 shows a day, as well as themed exhibitions at the Opportunity, Mobility and Sustainability pavilions.
The multibillion-dollar event will be the largest global gathering since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a projected 25 million visitors attending over six months, who must provide proof of vaccination or a recent negative PCR test.
Over the course of six months, the UN will host a series of events at Expo 2020 Dubai highlighting its work in the region and its anti-poverty, climate change and sustainability targets, called the Sustainable Development Goals.
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A new relationship with the old country
Treaty of Friendship between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates
The United kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates; Considering that the United Arab Emirates has assumed full responsibility as a sovereign and independent State; Determined that the long-standing and traditional relations of close friendship and cooperation between their peoples shall continue; Desiring to give expression to this intention in the form of a Treaty Friendship; Have agreed as follows:
ARTICLE 1 The relations between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United Arab Emirates shall be governed by a spirit of close friendship. In recognition of this, the Contracting Parties, conscious of their common interest in the peace and stability of the region, shall: (a) consult together on matters of mutual concern in time of need; (b) settle all their disputes by peaceful means in conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations.
ARTICLE 2 The Contracting Parties shall encourage education, scientific and cultural cooperation between the two States in accordance with arrangements to be agreed. Such arrangements shall cover among other things: (a) the promotion of mutual understanding of their respective cultures, civilisations and languages, the promotion of contacts among professional bodies, universities and cultural institutions; (c) the encouragement of technical, scientific and cultural exchanges.
ARTICLE 3 The Contracting Parties shall maintain the close relationship already existing between them in the field of trade and commerce. Representatives of the Contracting Parties shall meet from time to time to consider means by which such relations can be further developed and strengthened, including the possibility of concluding treaties or agreements on matters of mutual concern.
ARTICLE 4 This Treaty shall enter into force on today’s date and shall remain in force for a period of ten years. Unless twelve months before the expiry of the said period of ten years either Contracting Party shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the Treaty, this Treaty shall remain in force thereafter until the expiry of twelve months from the date on which notice of such intention is given.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned have signed this Treaty.
DONE in duplicate at Dubai the second day of December 1971AD, corresponding to the fifteenth day of Shawwal 1391H, in the English and Arabic languages, both texts being equally authoritative.
Signed
Geoffrey Arthur Sheikh Zayed
