UAE Amb. Praises Historic Ties With Kuwait, Underscores Successful Ventures

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Nasser Al-Khamri (interview)
KUWAIT, Dec 1 (KUNA) -- United Arab Emirates Ambassador to the State of Kuwait Matar Al-Nayadi on Friday lauded the historic, deep-rooted brotherly relations with Kuwait and shed light on his country's achievements at diverse levels.
In an interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) marking the UAE National Day, Ambassador Al-Nayadi said warmness of the close and historic relations between the two countries emanates from special care given by the two countries' sagacious leaderships. He underscored "the integration" between the two countries and people and continuing coordination in various spheres.
High turnout at the UAE embassy ceremonial reception on the occasion has constituted an evidence of the Kuwaiti's amicable sentiments toward the UAE and its people, the ambassador said.
On Kuwait-UAE trade exchanges, ambassador Al-Nayadi said they reached, last year, approximately KD 38 million (USD 123.4 million), indicating that the mutual commercial exchanges had increased, compared to previous years.
Regarding educational cooperation, he said that there are more than 1,500 Kuwaiti students at the UAE academies and colleges, revealing that three UAE universities have recently declared readiness to register Kuwaiti students to study medicine.
Moreover, there is cooperation in the health sector, namely in the human organs transplants.
On tourism, he mentioned that more than 300,000 Kuwaiti citizens visited the UAE last year.
Turning to the COP-28 conference on climate change that kicked off in Dubai, on Thursday, he affirmed that Abu Dhabi has hosted the convention to re-affirm its advocacy of using conventional and renewable energies and support for cutting harmful emissions.
The message it intends to promote at the COP 28 conference is that it should be eyed as a gathering for implementation of resolutions and not merely making pledges. Abu Dhabi, he has added, has four main goals at the conference; looking into responsible emery transfer, improving peoples' lives by expanding cultivated lands, combating desertification and upgrading states' funding for environmental care improvement.
The last objective is summarized as "no one should be left behind," he said, clarifying that environmental needs for communities living in secluded and remote areas such as the Amazon must be taken into consideration.
With respect of the "2023 the sustainability year," launched by the UAE President Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al-Nahyan early this year, Ambassador Al-Nayadi said the UAE had begun dedicating attention to environmental issues during era of the late president Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan.
This year's initiative aims at stimulating various sectors to interact with environmental initiatives, spread awareness on environmental sustainability, encouraging communities' participation in the efforts to attain sustainable development, backing national strategies at this level and attaining a prosperous future.
The UAE, this year, "achieved" a number of projects namely Al-Dhafra solar energy plant with a two gigawatt capacity, inauguration of the fourth division of the Baraka nuclear plant, Al-Sharjah waste plant, signing a contract for establishing the sixth phase of Mohammad bin Rashed solar complex with a capacity of 1,800 megawatts.
He has added that the UAE considers climatic change as a sphere for creating new jobs, technology transfer and launching investments. Moreover, the UAE has established a number of funds namely the fund that had been declared in the US with a value of USD 100 million to boost energy transformation in a number of countries and pledging a contribution of USD 100 million during the COP28 conference.
On the UAE efforts to cut carbon emissions, the UAE has established a special center for utilizing carbon reduction technologies and has given care for planting mangrove that has proven useful in decreasing such emissions and rehabilitating marine life, he said, noting that Indonesia last year declared "the mangrove coalition" to encourage nations plant it.
He lauded Kuwait's joining of the coalition last May. Elaborating, he said that the UAE embassy had planted mangroves in Kuwait in cooperation with the Environment Public Authority.
Re-touching on Abu Dhabi's nuclear project, he said the venture has entered the commercial phase, securing up to 20 percent of the UAE electric power. It has also been linked up with the GCC power grid, he added.
He gave the credit for the UAE space endeavors to inspiration by the late president, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan. "We continue to explore future opportunities and there are many of them." (end)
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