(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Joelyn Baluyut |The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: Ambassador of Australia to Qatar H E Shane Flanagan has stressed the importance of enhancing not only the“excellent” trade and economic cooperation but also the cultural connections between Australia and Qatar.
The envoy expressed his eagerness to bolster cultural ties by bringing Australian indigenous artwork to Qatar in the future, highlighting ongoing discussions with Qatar Museums.
“We really want to build on the excellent trade and economic cooperation that we have, and I think something that I would like to add to that, to really compliment and sort of take it forward on its own way is to strengthen cultural links, and so very keen to do what we can do to bring Australian indigenous artwork to Qatar sometime into future. We are having some good discussions with Qatar Museums about that and we look forward to be able to bring that in the future,” Ambassador Flanagan told The Peninsula.
Flanagan's appointment was announced on July 11 last year. Qatar is one of Australia's top three trading partners in the Middle East and North Africa region, with bilateral trade amounting to A$30.8bn in 2022, showing consistent growth of 7.7% over the past five years.
Australian companies have a strong presence in Qatar, with exports ranging from alumina, meat, and engineering services. Conversely, Qatar exports aviation services, fertiliser, and aluminum to Australia.
Notably, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, along with other state-owned investment entities, have substantial investments totalling A$4bn in Australia's various sectors, including property, logistics, energy and agriculture.
Flanagan also disclosed upcoming visits by high-ranking Australian officials to Qatar, including Australian Ambassador for Gender Equality, Stephanie Copus Campbell AM, scheduled for the latter half of 2024. The ambassador stressed the importance of identifying effective programmes to promote gender equality in cooperation with the Qatari government.
“Stephanie Copus Campbell will be coming in the second half of this year and we will be working with the government of Qatar to identify really good programme for her to best advance cooperation in advancing gender equality,” the ambassador said.
Reflecting on the existing gender equality landscape, Flanagan praised the presence of Qatari leaders across various fields, highlighting the collaborative efforts to further gender equality initiatives. He expressed enthusiasm for future discussions aimed at furthering cooperation in this area.“We're sort of keen to identify of how we can work together to help advance, so I'm looking forward for that future discussions as well.”
Regarding the upcoming Qatar Economic Forum, Flanagan said while there are no confirmed plans for the attendance of high-ranking Australian officials, he noted the presence of Assistant Foreign Minister Tim Watts at the Doha Forum last year. Flanagan anticipated similar high-level visits throughout the year, although specifics were yet to be finalised.“We expect we will have similar high level visits during the course of this year but nothing's specific at this stage.”
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