The President's Last Visit to the UAE Wasn’t Just Bilateral

• 03.31.2017, 19:20
•  Near East,  World,  Armenia,  Info

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Armenian-Arab relations traditionally have friendly character. However, over the years Armenia mainly developed the relations with those Arab countries, where big Armenian communities are - Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Egypt. In the recent years, Armenia has looked towards economically rich Gulf Arab states. As a first step towards strengthening relations with these countries can be considered Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's state visit to Kuwait in 2009, which was the first visit of this level to a country in this region.

The next Arab monarchy, with which Yerevan takes steps for deepening its relations, is the United Arab Emirates - a state with serious resources. The president's first state visit to this country was held in November 2016. It did not take too long to implement the agreements reached during the visit. Just three months later, Abu Dhabi hosted the "Armenia-United Arab Emirates' investment forum", which shows that Armenia uses the opportunities rather quickly. On the other hand, the rate of implementation of the agreements reached during the visit shows that the UAE is interested in deepening cooperation with our country. Notably, the President's visit was widely covered by the Arab media of the Gulf.

It should be noted that especially Armenia's joining the Eurasian Economic Union and high level partnership with the EU, which creates preferential conditions also for the economic sector, provide good investment background for Armenia. In some cases, Armenia can be a link for the Arab states of Gulf with these integration units, which have big markets. Moreover, this fact makes Armenia attractive not only for the UAE, but for the entire Arab world. It is noteworthy that the "Armenia-United Arab Emirates' investment forum" in Abu Dabi aimed to promote the intensification of Armenia’s economic ties not only with the UAE but also with Arab countries. In this context it should be noted that unlike the President's first visit to the UAE, the second was not just bilateral. With activating economic relations with the Arab world, Armenia aims to deepen the traditional friendly relations with the latter.

We should not forget that the most important components of modern international relations is economic component, which is sometimes crucial for the nature of bilateral relations and international cooperation.