THE United Arab Emirates and Malaysia enjoy excellent bilateral relations, which date back to the early 1970s, with both countries having diplomatic representations later on.
Malaysia established its diplomatic mission in Abu Dhabi in 1983, while the UAE opened its embassy in Kuala Lumpur in 1995.
Ever since then, relations between the two countries witnessed remarkable developments, especially in the areas of trade and investment.
This has been leveraged by high-level visits to both capitals. The most recent of which is the visit of Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to the UAE on March 10, 2021, as well as the visit of His Majesty the king, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah, to the UAE in December 2020.
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also visited Malaysia in July 2019.
As multicultural societies, the UAE and Malaysia share the values of tolerance and moderation, which are manifested in the very composition of their social fabric and harmonious societies that reflect the embodiment of the concept of unity in diversity.
The recent visit by the prime minister of Malaysia to the UAE is a mark of close relations of friendship between the two countries.
It aims to drive bilateral relation to a new strategic level, promoting trade and investments with potential cooperation in the areas of food security, halal products development, and more collaboration in the oil and gas sector, in addition to post-Covid-19 cooperation, especially by promoting tourism recovery plans.
The UAE is Malaysia's biggest trading partner in the Middle East and West Asia. Total bilateral trade volume for the past five years stood at US$29 billion.
And despite the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic slowdown, trade volume between the two countries is expected to increase in the years ahead.
UAE companies such as Mubadala and OSC Investments in Malaysia are estimated at US$1.2 billion in oil and gas, while Malaysian companies, such as Serba Dinamik Holdings, have a strong presence in the UAE.
Malaysia is also an educational destination for UAE students with more than 700 pursuing their studies in Malaysian public and private institutions of higher learning, mostly in the fields of management, accounting and law.
The writer is UAE ambassador to Malaysia