(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The UAE and France signed, on Monday evening in Abu Dhabi, an agreement to collaborate on an Earth Observation Space Capability initiative.
The signing of the agreement was witnessed by General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces; Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Foreign Minister, and Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Defence of the French Republic.
The two sides issued a joint statement saying that the agreement comes as part of the strategic partnership framework discussed in January 2013 with the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during an official visit by Francois Hollande, President of the French Republic.
The agreement was signed on the UAE side by Major-General Essa Saif Al Mazrouei, Deputy Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, and on the French side by Lt-General Antoine Noguier, Director of the Military Office of the French Minister for Defense, in the presence of Gen. Shaikh Mohammed.
The joint statement said the initiative would extend the longstanding bilateral relationship between the two countries into a new and very promising area of strategic collaboration.
The statement further indicated that the agreement signing was part of a meeting that included Gen. Shaikh Mohammed, Shaikh Abdullah and Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The two sides reaffirmed that, for more than four decades, the UAE and France have enjoyed a strong and effective bilateral relationship, underpinned by a long history in the areas of energy and defence, and that this relationship was further solidified in 1995 and 2009 with the signing of defence agreements between the two countries.
The joint statement also referred to politics and diplomacy, culture and education, and economics and trade as additional major areas of mutual interest and cooperation.
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