His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has praised the current visit by French President Francois Hollande to the UAE as “important and historic” and said it would further strengthen bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation.Shaikh Mohammed made his remarks during talks with the visiting French President at Zabeel Palace on Tuesday, during which they exchanged views on the latest regional and international developments in light of political transformations in some countries in the region.
Shaikh Mohammed receives French President at Zabeel Palace in Dubai on Tuesday. —Wam
The talks also tackled the world economic and financial situation and how to employ good bonds existed between the UAE and France to build constructive strategic partnerships that realise aspirations of leaderships and peoples of the two friendly countries.
The French president expressed his country’s sincere desire to set up a joint fund for investment projects in energy and tourism.
“Our relations are outstanding and excellent but we are looking forward for a future that holds a lot of ambitions that could be materialised to serve mutual interests of our two countries and peoples,” President Hollande said.
“We have a lot to do more than we have done so far in terms of developing our relations at all spheres,” he added. President Hollande invited Shaikh Mohammed to visit France. Shaikh Mohammed accepted the invitation, the date of which will be set later.
Shaikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai; Shaikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of Dubai Aviation Authority and Chairman and CEO of Emirates Group; Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Foreign Trade; Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs; Reem Al Hashemi, Minister of State, were present at the meeting.
