Abu dhabi: All possibilities and margins will be fully explored to achieve positive developments and results, Cyprus' Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos said in a video statement following the conclusion of an interministerial working visit to the United Arab Emirates, within the framework of the implementation of the Joint Action Plan between the two countries.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Energy, and Agriculture, as well as the Deputy Minister for Research, had a working visit to the UAE between Friday and Saturday. They discussed, during meetings with their counterparts and other officials, cooperation across a range of sectors.
In his statement, Kombos noted that the visit followed the official visit of the President of the UAE to Cyprus and the signing of the Cyprus-UAE strategic agreement. Kombos said that on Friday he signed, together with his UAE counterpart, a framework agreement concerning strategic cooperation in the energy sector.
He added that on Saturday the Cypriot Ministers held meetings with the UAE Minister of Investment, the Minister of Innovation and Technology, the Head of the National Investment Fund, as well as the Head of the National Energy Company. 'We discussed a range of issues relating to the energy sector, including matters concerning desalination and issues related to cutting-edge technology,' he said. 'The aim is to exhaust all possibilities and every margin that may exist in relation to delivering concrete results,' he added, noting that there was political will on both sides.
Concluding his statement, Kombos said that 'the effort will continue' and that all available margins would be fully utilised in order to achieve positive developments and results.
The Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Maria Panayiotou, in her own statement, said the working visit was a 'very important' one, noting that water resource management was among the issues discussed. 'The dialogue with the United Arab Emirates is ongoing. It is a dialogue that has already delivered positive results for our country, with the installation of desalination units at Moni. It is a dialogue that is clearly based on mutual political will for cooperation,' she said.
Panayiotou said that Cyprus is observing the model the UAE apply as regards water resource management and was making use of the technologies they have, 'in order to improve and strengthen our own systems'.
'We are moving in the right direction,' said the Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry, Michael Damianos, in his statement. He said they discussed, in the energy sector, 'a broader strategic cooperation, always focused on the arrival of natural gas, on EEZ issues, but also on renewable energy sources.' The meetings were very constructive, he said.
Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou, said that the framework of cooperation with the UAE also covers the technology and innovation sectors, referring to the UAE's expertise in these areas. Cyprus, he said, aims to transform an economy primarily based on services into an economy based on services but also on technology, innovation and knowledge - 'a knowledge-based economy for the new digital future'. 'The UAE is model state in this context; it has the expertise and the technology and is an important partner in these fields,' he added.
According to Damianou, during meetings with government counterparts and ecosystem stakeholders, particular emphasis was placed 'mainly on artificial intelligence, how to build an ecosystem that includes infrastructure, expertise and appropriate technology so that we can become a technological hub for the region, especially in artificial intelligence.' He said discussions focused on the next practical steps that can turn this effort into reality.