President Sheikh Mohamed met Charles Michel, president of the European Council, in Abu Dhabi on Thursday.
During a reception at Qasr Al Watan, the two leaders discussed ways to strengthen the long-standing political partnership between the UAE and the European Union.
The UAE President and Mr Michel also exchanged views on several regional and international issues of mutual concern.
They discussed the volume of non-oil trade exchange between the UAE and the European Union, which amounted to $51 billion in 2021, with the UAE being home to over 250,000 Europeans and welcoming over four million European tourists.
Mr Michel posted a picture on Twitter from his visit and referenced the UN Climate Change Conference that the UAE will host next year.
“With @MohamedBinZayed to consolidate our long-standing partnership in all aspects,” he said.
“Let’s tap into the full potential of our relations to boost investments, energy co-operation and people-to-people contacts.
“We welcome your ambition to become a leader in low carbon green energy #Cop28.”
Mr Michel arrived at Al Bateen Airport in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday after visiting Qatar for the opening of the EU Delegation in Doha.
Early on Thursday, the president of the European Council paid a visit to Wahat Al Karama, which commemorates UAE martyrs.
He also attended the Guard of Honour ceremony and the laying of a wreath at the monument, and ended the tour by leaving a personal note in the memorial’s guest book.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
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