President Moon Jae-in, who is making an official visit to the United Arab Emirates at the invitation of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, attended a ceremony in celebration of the completion of the first reactor at the Barakah nuclear power plant construction site. The construction project is to build the largest nuclear power plant in the world.

As many as 200 key dignitaries, including the heads of state of the two countries and leaders of government agencies, businesses and organizations, attended the ceremony to celebrate the successful construction of the first reactor, the first fruition of bilateral nuclear cooperation.

The completion ceremony today was made extraordinarily special by the attendance of eight UAE royal family members, including the Crown Prince. Any event attended by a large number of royals like today’s celebration is very rare in the UAE, which raised expectations for more bilateral cooperation.

Concrete was first poured for the construction of the first nuclear reactor at the Barakah nuclear power plant in July 2012. The Barakah plant, the UAE`s first, is also Korea`s first nuclear export. If the construction of four reactors is completed by 2020 as planned by the UAE, the Korean-designed APR-1400 nuclear reactors would provide about 25 percent of the electricity demand in the UAE. 

After the ceremony, President Moon met with Korean workers who took part in the construction of the nuclear reactor. Attending the meeting were about 200 workers from related public corporations and construction companies, including the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, the Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Samsung C&T. 

President Moon said each and every worker worked hard in unity thinking that they represented their country. The President went on to say that he could feel once again the unified strength and capabilities of the Korean people, offering encouragement to the workers. He stressed that the Barakah nuclear power plant had added significance in that it was the first nuclear plant exported by Korea, the first in the UAE and in the Middle East and that it opened a new horizon in the bilateral cooperation between the two nations. 

President Moon said that the Crown Prince had thanked the Korean workers, businesses and Government for their efforts and expressed his wholehearted trust in the Korean technology during the summit the day before. In explaining overall diplomatic achievements, the President went on to say that the Crown Prince had promised to give Korea priority in various projects taking place in the west of Abu Dhabi, including the Barakah region.