President Moon Jae-in and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates held a summit followed by an official luncheon today. The two leaders reached an agreement to upgrade their strategic partnership to a special strategic partnership.

The summit started with a warm welcome from the Crown Prince and continued for approximately an hour, way longer than originally scheduled.

The Crown Prince began by saying that, as the President must know well, the relationship between the two countries was very strong and special. He went on to say that he was deeply impressed by President Moon’s visit to the Memorial of Wahat al Karama as soon as he arrived in the UAE, expressing his conviction that all the people of the UAE would have welcomed that. He continued to say that he was told that President Moon wanted to go out to the desert once, adding he was pleased to hear that because it showed that President Moon had an understanding of the UAE. 

Saying that he had heard that the Crown Prince has so far met with only a handful of leaders in this newly built, beautiful Presidential Palace, President Moon expressed his appreciation for the Crown Prince`s considerations to meet with him in the new Palace. The President continued that Korea first acquired a nuclear reactor from the United States and developed its own technologies based on it, now exporting nuclear technologies to other countries. He continued to say that Korea would provide support so that the UAE would be able to take the same path. 

Today`s summit was also attended by Presidential Chief of Staff Im Jong-seok and Minister of Foreign Affairs Kang Kyung-wha on the Korean side as well as Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi, and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the UAE, who is the youngest brother of the Crown Prince, on the UAE side. President Moon and the Crown Prince reached an agreement that the Korean Presidential Chief of Staff and the Chairman of the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi would work together to address difficulties the two countries might face in maintaining and further developing bilateral relations. 

During the summit, the two countries agreed to organize bilateral communication channels, including a vice minister-level two-plus-two consultative body on foreign affairs and national defense. They also concurred on the need to regularly hold in-depth discussions on pending issues between the two countries through the vitalization of strategic talks between foreign ministers and by holding a joint economic committee meeting annually.  

The two leaders gave high marks to the fact that the two nations have established exemplary cooperative relations in various areas, not just in energy and infrastructure but also in national defense, the defense industry, healthcare and medical services. Considering that the UAE is actively pursuing a strategy to reduce its reliance on oil, they agreed to expand substantive bilateral cooperation to include the areas of new technology and future-growth industries that can create high added-value in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 

Expressing his gratitude for Korean companies recently winning an order to build an energy facility in the UAE, President Moon asked the Crown Prince to take continued interest and provide support so that Korean businesses can actively take part in the construction of the energy facilities and infrastructure. 

Following the summit, five MOUs were signed in various areas: cooperation in science as well as information and communications technology; collaboration in small and medium-sized enterprises and innovation; cooperation on renewable energy and the new energy industry; the establishment of channels of cooperation in industry and energy, and collaboration in patent administration.