The bond of UK-UAE friendship

The bond of UK-UAE friendship Amanda Fisher / 24 June 2013 Amanda Fisher speaks with British Ambassador Dominic Jermey 
about the challenges of office, Shaikh Khalifa’s State visit to Britain and camel racing. What is your background? I used to be an investment banker and I graduated from Cambridge with a literature and philosophy degree. Between high school and university, I taught in a school in Chile and I asked the Rothschild family for sponsorship money to get there. After university, I wrote to them and said thanks for the sponsorship money, how about a job? After working in investment banking in several countries, I returned to the UK, where I learnt Urdu through the Foreign Office, which is how I got into the diplomatic service. I think now the Foreign Office is very keen to reach out to the private sector … somebody like me who’s been an ambassador they’d be very open to me going to work for five years for a major multinational and then returning. Diplomacy in Britain is a career, but it’s no longer a hermetically sealed one.   In which other countries and in what capacity have you previously worked? After learning Urdu, I went to work in Pakistan for the Foreign Office, which I thoroughly enjoyed, before I moved on to Afghanistan where we were working with the Northern Alliance and the Taleban. We were very much focusing on supporting the UN-led peace initiatives in the 90s and supporting the United Nations anti-drug campaign. We had a very strong interest as at that time about 90 per cent of the heroin on British streets was from Afghanistan. In 1999, I relocated to the Balkans during the Kosovo crisis, then I moved to East Timor the next year while there was intervention on the genocide happening there. I returned to the United Kingdom working in peace-keeping, before I took up a post as the deputy ambassador in Spain in 2004, returning to the United Kingdom in 2007 to take a position as the managing director of UK Trade and Investment.   How long have you been in the UAE? I have been in Abu Dhabi since 2010.   Are you here with your family? If so, tell us about them. I don’t actually talk much about my family as I don’t think it is for public consumption, but it’s safe to say they have fun here, they really enjoy camel festivals, water sports, and being welcomed by Emiratis into their homes. I have a wife, who is a doctor, and two children who I think are much more likely to follow their mother into becoming a doctor rather than diplomacy. Living in different countries around the world is a fantastic way to grow up.   What do you think are the successes of the UAE in its relationship with the UK? A matter of weeks after I got here, Prime Minister David Cameron came on his first trip in office. He set out a vision to sort of re-energise the relationship between the UK and the UAE and I’m very much the custodian of that relationship. It spreads across our people, 120,000 British nationals live in this country and choose to be here because they enjoy it and want to contribute to the development of this country. The royal families have close relations, and I saw that last month when the Queen invited the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and his brothers into her home. It was one of the first state trips that Shaikh Khalifa had done in a number of years and I think it’s a record actually that the Queen has done a visit to a country and in less than three years there’s been a return back, which speaks about the closeness of the relationship. There’s a very close political relationship, and we see that right now with the two countries cooperating on issues like Syria, which is one of the biggest challenges facing the world. We’ve also had a close military relationship for example in places like Afghanistan, where our servicemen serve alongside each other in harm’s way. And there’s a very close business relationship as well. At a recent Manchester City football match, I looked at the work done in the area by the UAE-UK Business Council, who have turned the area around the stadium into a business park, following on from Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Presidential Affair’s, investments in Manchester City. While there are 5,000 British businesses operating in the UAE, I see business very much as a two-way street, with some outstanding UAE businesses operating in the UK. There is the London Gateway Business Port being built by DP World, which is a multi-billion dollar investment, we see The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) investing in the North Sea, and we see Masdar developing the London Array, which will be Northern Europe’s largest offshore wind farm. There’s a growing presence of Emirati businesses and investment in the UK.   What do you think are the challenges faced by the UAE? I think this is a difficult neighbourhood, we’ve seen the economic benefit to the UAE from the Arab Spring in terms of migration of investment, but nevertheless, the old uncertainties of the stability of the Middle East have surfaced. As I look at what’s going on in Syria right now and the wider impact in terms of humanitarian issues and strong Islamist groups from around the region taking part in the fighting, I think that’s a grave concern for us and that’s a concern the Emiratis share. I look across the water to Iran and the nuclear programme, and I look at the UAE which is creating a gold standard civil nuclear programme completely aligned with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and we compare that to the approach that Iran is taking from where they are making uranium enriched to a level that has no civil use, that of course is of grave concern. These are important issues that the UK will continue to discuss with the UAE government.   What are your priorities in your role? My role is to make sure that all the many different parts of the bilateral relationship join up well and have real impact as more than the sum of the parts. It’s about making sure the relationships work in terms of foreign policy and business. I ensure when Shaikh Khalifa or His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, visit Britain they meet the people they need to meet and vice-versa. There were 33 members of the royal family or Ministers from the UK who came to the UAE last year — part of my job is making sure those people meet the right people when they are here and that those meetings drive forward business in a way that is good for the UK and the UAE. It’s about something that works for the long term.   What is the stance on visa requirements for Emiratis? There has been a lot of talk the UK will remove restrictions, allowing them to enter the country without a pre-approved visa. This is a really important issue for the Emiratis and I think the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is playing a blinder in terms of getting progress, and we’re working on it. I think they’re putting forward a really excellent case, not just in the UK, but in many countries. I can’t say when there will be any progress, but we’re working on it.   Do you think the two countries will continue their historical closeness? I think it’s a relationship that will last long into the future, it’s got very strong roots, and importantly there are lots of people — Emiratis and Brits — who are working hard to develop what we do together, whether it’s military cooperation, trade cooperation or ties between the royal families. I think from these roots a really strong and healthy relationship will continue to grow.   What is your favourite pastime in the UAE? I enjoy going to camel races, it’s great fun and it’s absolutely wild, actually. We kind of hurtle along in our 4 X 4, shouting at our camel while standing in the sun roof. I’ve also been skydiving with the British Army’s elite parachute regiment, The Red Devils, over Palm Jumeirah. That was a once in a lifetime experience, and I haven’t felt the need to go skydiving since. Where is your favourite destination in the UAE? I love Dubai, but I love Al Ain probably most of all. That’s where I go to relax. We have a house by the Oasis and I just love wandering through and reflecting on the way things used to be in the UK. amanda@khaleejtimes.com —Interview in abridged format Taylor Scott International