ABU DHABI: Japan and the UAE signed yesterday a nuclear cooperation agreement during a visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who stressed Tokyo’s cooperation with its Middle East partners.
Abe is on a regional tour he began in Saudi Arabia, in a push to sell Japanese nuclear technologies. The cooperation agreement over a peaceful use of nuclear energy was signed in Dubai, in the presence of Abe and UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashif Al-Maktoum, WAM state news agency said.
The UAE also agreed to extend an oil concession agreement with japan’s Abu Dhabi Oil Co. adding a new zone, WAM said. Making his second visit to the Gulf country as prime minister, Abe arrived late on Wednesday in the UAE, Japan’s eighth largest world economic partner, to take part in a Japan-UAE Business Forum.
Abe announced at the forum that Japan would sign a nuclear agreement with the UAE.
“Japan can contribute to UAE energy supplies by means of nuclear energy conservation and renewable energy,” he said according to translation from Japanese.
The UAE announced in mid-July that it would begin building two of four nuclear power plants — each with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts — in partnership with a South Korean consortium, as part of plans to produce electricity from 2017.
Despite being a major oil exporter, the UAE has opted to develop nuclear power, seeing it as a proven, environmentally promising and commercially competitive source of electricity.
With four plants scheduled to be operational by 2020, the UAE hopes that nuclear energy would provide up to a quarter of its electricity needs, which are forecast to soar to 40 gigawatts from 15.5 currently.
Japan signs N-cooperation deal with UAE
