(MENAFN- Emirates News Agency (WAM))
NUKUʻALOFA, 23rd November, 2018 (WAM) -- King Tupou VI of Tonga received on Thursday the UAE non-resident Ambassador to Tonga, Saleh Ahmed Salem Al Suwaidi, and expressed his country's desire to widen the scope of cooperation between the two countries.
The Ambassador conveyed the greetings of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and their wishes for further development and growth for the Polynesian kingdom.
King Tupou reciprocated the greetings and highlighted his country's desire to have effective presence in the Expo 2020 Dubai to reflect the cultural, tourist and trade developments that occurred in the country over the past years. He noted that the recent opening of the Embassy of Tonga in the UAE translates his country's keenness to bolster bilateral relations.
The two sides reviewed ways of fostering cooperation across various domains and discussed a number of regional and international issues of common interest.
The UAE ambassador recently participated in laying the foundation stone of a project to upgrade the power distribution grid in the capital Nukuʻalofa, which the UAE financed with US$ 3.5 million in partnership with New Zealand and the Asian Development Fund.
The Kingdom of Tonga is a Polynesian country and archipelago comprising 176 islands, of which 36 are inhabited. The total surface area is about 750 square kilometres (290 sq mi) scattered over 700,000 square kilometres (270,000 sq mi) of the southern Pacific Ocean. Tonga stretches across approximately 800 kilometres (500 mi) in a north-south line.
WAM/Hatem Mohamed
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