Qatar and the United Kingdom ties are historical and strong and they are growing with the passage of time particularly in economic, security and investment areas. The enhancement of bilateral relations in diversified fields is bringing more opportunities and benefits for people of both friendly countries.
The recent announcement by Qatar and the UK that they intend to launch an annual bilateral strategic dialogue is a great development that will cement strategic ties between the two countries The first session of strategic dialogue will be held in London in the first quarter of 2022.
This came following a meeting in Doha between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs of the United Kingdom H E Liz Truss on Thursday.
The joint statement made at the occasion said that the strategic dialogue will reflect on the strength of bilateral relations and explore opportunities that benefit the peoples of the two countries to enhance cooperation.
It added that there is a strong partnership between the State of Qatar and the United Kingdom in developing commerce, investment, defence, security, technology, cooperation on counter-terrorism, public health, climate change, energy, culture, sports, education, and enhancing peace and security with friends and allies around the world, which includes infrastructure and investing in developing countries.
Meanwhile, in an interview during her visit to Doha, Liz Truss underlined the strength of the relations between Qatar and the United Kingdom, adding the two sides are looking forward to promoting and developing them to achieve their common interests and the interests of the two friendly peoples.
“It is fifty years since we established our first relations with Qatar and we have a very strong relationship. But what I want to do is move that to a new level.”
Talking about the launch of strategic dialogue, she said: “This strategic dialogue is putting a framework in place so we can progress our relationship in all these different areas like security, education, trade, investment; we are very interested in working with Qatar on investing in third countries, particularly in areas like green energy.”
The relations between Qatar and UK continue to grow from strength to strength, and the bilateral partnership extends to many fields, especially in trade, investment, culture, education, energy and others.
According to a recent report, the volume of trade exchange between Qatar and the UK amounted to nearly $3bn in 2020, and the United Kingdom ranks as Qatar’s seventh largest trade partner. Qatar and UK traded QR14.06bn worth of goods in 2019.
