On March 15^th, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates, Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, visited Brasília. He was received by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and the Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ernesto Araújo, and met several other dignitaries. The objective of the visit was the exchange of perspectives on the bilateral and regional agendas and the identification of opportunities for the development of cooperation in sectors such as agribusiness, infrastructure, and science and technology.

Three agreements were signed during the visit, comprising the areas of investments, legal cooperation, and tourism. One of them was the Cooperation and Facilitation Investment Agreement, whose objective is to encourage, simplify and support bilateral investments. It complements the agreement to avoid double taxation signed at the end of 2018, which guarantees that investments of one country onto another are taxed only in one of them. In addition to such initiatives, Brazil and the UAE established a workgroup for investment promotion, composed by representatives of the Mubadala holding, the UAE Embassy in Brasília, and of the following Brazilian ministries: Science and Technology, Economy, Infrastructure, Mining and Energy, and Foreign Affairs.

The two countries also signed an agreement for mutual legal assistance, whose objective is to promote cooperation between the two countries in order to strengthen repression to crime, by means of joint actions for the extradition of criminals. In the area of tourism, Sheik Al Nahyan and Brazil’s Tourism Minister, Mr. Marcelo Álvaro, signed an MoU, which entails the facilitation of customs procedures to intensify the travel flow between the two countries, as well as investment flows. Since 2018 Brazilian and Emirati citizens are exempt of visa to visit the other country.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, Ministry of Tourism of Brazil, Agência Brasil, Arab-Brazilian News Agency, and other publications