Iran is scheduled to hold an exhibition of agriculture and food industry in the UAE from Nov. 7-10, the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran announced on Monday.
Concurrent with the exhibition, a forum on investment, production and export opportunities for Iran’s food industries and agricultural products will also be held, Mehr News Agency reported.
Iran currently accounts for close to 3% of the UAE’s food and beverages market, which is as big as $16 billion per year.
TPO organizes the two events to introduce Iran’s capacities in the field and help increase its share in the neighboring country’s market.
Latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show the UAE was the biggest exporter to Iran in the fifth month of the current Iranian year (July 23-Aug. 22) with 1 million tons of imports worth $1.2 billion to register a 26% year-on-year rise in value.
In recent months, Emirati officials have made several visits to Iran to boost trade and economic cooperation.
Abu Dhabi recently said it is in the process of returning its ambassador to Tehran after a rupture of ties for years.
The UAE declared that its ambassador to Iran, Saif Mohamed Al-Zaabi, would return to Tehran “in the coming days” more than six years after the Persian Gulf Arab state downgraded its diplomatic relations with Iran in 2016 in solidarity with Saudi Arabia after the storming of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran by Iranian demonstrators in protest at the Saudi execution of the prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, reads an article in Al-Ahram. Excerpts follow:
The UAE decision to resend its ambassador to Tehran is in line with its efforts to strengthen relations with Iran “to achieve the common interests of the two countries and the wider region,” the UAE Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
UAE diplomatic sources in London told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Persian Gulf states began reevaluating their relations with Tehran independent of the US Middle East policy in 2019.
“There is a realization that countries of the region need to protect their security by a rapprochement with Iran. This rapprochement is important and beneficial for the entire region … Security equals prosperity; it is as simple as that,” a UAE diplomat told the weekly.
Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, emphasized that his country was “taking steps to deescalate tensions with Iran as part of a policy choice toward diplomacy and away from confrontation”.
A few months ago, the UAE and Iran signed an economic cooperation agreement, and last December, Turkey, Iran and the UAE signed a similar agreement under which goods are sent from the UAE to Iran and then to Turkey over land.
UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, brother of UAE Ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, visited Iran last year to look at developing economic and political relations.
