DUBAI: The EU aims to cooperate with the Gulf states on climate change, global access to vaccines and supporting the ‘green economy’, the bloc’s foreign policy chief has said.
Josep Borrell, the 27-member European Union’s representative for foreign affairs, will be holding talks with officials in Riyadh, UAE and Qatar during his visit.
Borrell has said the more than 30-year-old EU-GCC partnership should use “the current momentum to give our cooperation a more strategic orientation”, according to a local media report.
Calling his meetings in Riyadh an “essential part” of his visit, Borrell said Saudi Arabia is an important actor on the global and multilateral stage, and “I trust that its robust commitments at the upcoming COP26 will inspire other energy producers”.
He added that the two sides will discuss how best to support Saudi Arabia’s domestic transformation and economic diversification, in line with the objectives of Vision 2030 “with the involvement of European companies”.
A cooperation agreement will be signed with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and a joint cooperation council at the ministerial level will be convened early next year during the Saudi presidency of the GCC, the report said.
