Indonesian President Joko Widodo will on Tuesday begin a two-day state visit to the UAE, in which he will hold high-level talks with President Sheikh Mohamed.
The two leaders will review efforts to bolster strategic ties between the friendly nations across a number of key sectors, state news agency Wam reported.
Discussions will centre on the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) signed between the countries in July 2022, which is crucial to joint efforts to advance sustainable development.
Sheikh Mohamed said at the time the agreement would herald "a new era of increased trade, investment and economic co-operation".
The head of state said it would serve to build on the long-standing links between the countries.
The pact came into force in August 2023.
The UAE-Indonesia Cepa is projected to boost the value of bilateral non-oil trade from $4.08 billion to more than $10 billion within five years of implementation.
The agreement also seeks to raise the combined value of trade in services between the two nations to $630 million by 2030. More than 80 per cent of UAE exports to Indonesia will now be exempt from customs duties.
Mr Widodo is to step down this year at the end of his second and final term as president.
Green vision
The UAE and Indonesia are also united in the fight to safeguard the planet.
In May it was announced work had begun on a new mangrove research centre in Indonesia, in collaboration with the UAE.
Backed by the UAE's $10 million investment, the Mohamed bin Zayed-Joko Widodo International Mangrove Research Centre will be built on 2.5 hectares of land in Bali's Ngurah Rai Forest Park.
The park is already home to more than 1,158ha of mangroves and the research centre was first announced at last year's Cop28 climate change conference in Dubai.
"The project reflects the UAE’s commitment to protect critical ecosystems, such as mangroves, and is in line with [the country's] climate-mitigation efforts," said Suhail Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, who attended a ground-breaking event at the project.
"The centre will be an ideal platform for scientists and researchers to join forces and exchange knowledge to improve our ability to counter current and future environmental challenges.
Shared values
The UAE and Indonesia's friendship runs deep, with both countries home to their own Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque.
Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Solo on the Indonesian island of Java, named in tribute to the UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, was opened by President Sheikh Mohamed and his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo in November 2022.
Though smaller than the Abu Dhabi original, it bears a remarkable resemblance to the architectural marvel with its striking white and gold decor, four minarets and a central dome surrounded by four smaller ones.
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Hachette Books
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (UAE kick-off times)
Cologne v Hoffenheim (11.30pm)
Saturday
Hertha Berlin v RB Leipzig (6.30pm)
Schalke v Fortuna Dusseldof (6.30pm)
Mainz v Union Berlin (6.30pm)
Paderborn v Augsburg (6.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund (9.30pm)
Sunday
Borussia Monchengladbach v Werder Bremen (4.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Bayer Leverkusen (6.30pm)
SC Freiburg v Eintracht Frankfurt (9on)
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
