Fourteen months after normalising their relations, the United Arab Emirates and Israel recently agreed new steps to develop cooperation in higher education and scientific research.
A memorandum of understanding signed on November 18 calls for “encouraging coordination between educational institutions in both countries” through joint activities like training courses and conferences, as well as student-exchange programmes and related activities, the Emirates News Agency said.
The Emirates’ minister of education, Hussain bin Ibrahim Al Hammadi, travelled to Tel Aviv to sign the accord with his Israeli counterpart, Yifat Shasha-Biton.
In a statement on Twitter, the U.A.E. ministry described the memorandum as “an extension of the Abrahamic Peace Agreement” signed last year. (See a related article, “Despite Controversy, Emirati-Israeli Research Cooperation Has Kicked Off”.)
It comes four months after the U.A.E. opened an embassy in Tel Aviv on July 14 this year.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2019 Israel spent 4.9 percent of its gross domestic product on research and development, a higher proportion than any other country. The Emirates’ spending on research is around 1.3 percent of gross domestic product, the highest share among Arab nations, according to 2018 figures from the World Bank.