Adedokun Waliyu 
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) says it is committed to strengthening diplomatic ties with Nigeria.
Reem Al-Hashimy, UAE’s minister of state for international cooperation and special envoy to Nigeria, spoke on Thursday after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu.
Al-Hashimy said she conveyed the UAE president’s letter, which expatiated on how the emirate intends to intensify its alliance with Nigeria, to Tinubu.
The minister described the meeting as “incredibly successful” and said the UAE has optimistic and forward-looking ideas for a cooperative alliance between the two nations.
“We are, as you also are aware, expecting to receive the whole world at COP28 in the UAE in about a week’s time and are very committed to ensuring that Nigeria continues to be a strategic partner for the UAE and we continue to work on important issues for the Nigerian people,” Al-Hashimy said.
“We’re very keen on looking at how we can strengthen our ties more than they already are and we’ve come with a really positive letter to this new Nigerian government.
“The president of Nigeria and the president of the United Arab Emirates met for the first time in September and we are optimistic about all of the great projects we’re going to be working with you on.”
Al-Hashimy said UAE and Nigeria are blessed with a lot of resources, citing human capital as the most important.
“We both have that and we’ve tried to build on what we already have between our two nations,” she added.
“I hope that we would be able to strengthen the bridge between our two countries and bring more prosperity to our two nations.”
The minister’s comments came as Dubai opened a trade office in Lagos to enhance cross-border partnership between both economies.
The Lagos office is Dubai Chambers’ seventh in Africa and 28th worldwide.
