On the occasion of the visit of the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan to Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a strategic partnership between the two countries was agreed today. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg and the Emirati Minister of Industry and Technology Sultan Al Jaber each signed the memorandum of understanding with the objective of establishing a deeper collaboration. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz commented:
I am pleased that we are able to enhance our close bilateral relationship as part of the Crown Prince’s first visit to Austria. In addition, the Emirates are a country that stands for innovation and is investing heavily in future technologies, including in the area of renewable energy and sustainability. Today’s agreement is ground-breaking, and will give fresh energy to our outstanding collaboration.
The strategic partnership is signed just in time for the Expo in Dubai, where Austria will be prominently represented. In addition to the partnership in the fields of commerce, energy and trade, culture, education and the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the two countries also hope to deepen their dialogue on foreign-policy issues.
From the Austrian perspective, it is especially positive that the UAE normalised its diplomatic relations with Israel, another of Austria’s strategic partners, last year. That is a significant step toward achieving greater peace and security in a volatile region of the world,
said Alexander Schallenberg.
The Emirates are our most important commercial partner in the Middle East. Because of its geographic location, the UAE is the ideal place for Austrian companies to explore new markets. Numerous Austrian businesses are already active there today, with many success stories. We want to further expand and solidify the position of the United Arab Emirates as Austria’s largest trade partner in the Gulf region through this strategic partnership,
said Minister of the Economy Margarete Schramböck.
The central focus of the partnership established today is closer collaboration in the area of hydrogen. The two countries are planning to combine their leading companies to create an Austrian-Emirati hydrogen alliance.
We are linked to the United Arab Emirates by an over 25-year-old energy partnership that is primarily sustained by the shared ownership of OMV. We plan to expand this partnership to hydrogen. That is why I have asked Finance Minister Blümel to find ways to build a bilateral alliance consisting of the leading companies in the Austrian and Emirati industry,
said Chancellor Kurz, referring to the positive long-time economic relationship between the two countries.
The global competition for access to hydrogen is already in full force, and will be an important factor in Austria’s future development as an industrial location. Finance Minister Gernot Blümel travelled to the UAE in early July for this reason, and had initial meetings to discuss the hydrogen alliance during his visit.
We want to strengthen the two countries’ collaboration in this important future-oriented field, and create a concrete framework that allows us to take steps in terms of financing, research, implementation and trade. Our know-how in the natural gas trade makes us promising candidates in the field of international hydrogen trading. The technological knowledge accumulated in Austria is an advantage that we can contribute to this sort of alliance,
said Gernot Blümel.
Protecting human rights as well as fighting extremism and terrorism will also be addressed in the cooperation committee led by the two ministers; this committee is responsible for the partnership’s implementation. In the document, both countries confirm their commitment to the United Nations and a rule-based international order. The COVID-19 crisis has once again highlighted the importance of international collaboration. Therefore, Austria hopes to develop deeper partnerships with a series of selected countries. In addition to the United Arab Emirates, these include Australia, Costa Rica, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea and Uruguay. A partnership was also signed with Switzerland a few weeks ago.
