PM Lee visits new multi-faith complex and Burj Khalifa on first official trip to UAE
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ABU DHABI - On his first official trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Saturday visited a new interfaith complex in the capital of Abu Dhabi that houses a mosque, a church and the country’s first official synagogue.
He signed a plaque at the Abrahamic Family House with the message “Unity in Diversity”, after visiting the three houses of worship, which have a similar white cubic architecture. They border an elevated garden that serves as a space for people of different faiths to gather.
The sprawling Abrahamic Family House that opened in 2023 was conceptualised in 2019 after a landmark declaration was signed by Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb, the grand imam of Cairo’s prestigious Al-Azhar Mosque, calling for mutual respect and peaceful coexistence among people of different faiths.
Earlier, the Prime Minister visited the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, where he was received by Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
After a tour of the Burj Khalifa, PM Lee and his delegation were briefed on Dubai’s overall development in the last decade, as well as the Emirates’ vision and key economic initiatives to diversify and grow its economy to more than US$800 billion (S$1 trillion).
PM Lee Hsien Loong being given a tour of the world’s tallest building Burj Khalifa by UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi on Oct 21.
PHOTO: LIANHE ZAOBAO
PM Lee arrived in Dubai, the most populous city in the UAE, on Friday evening, after visiting Saudi Arabia from Tuesday to Friday.
The UAE is Singapore’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, with bilateral trade in goods amounting to $29.8 billion in 2022.
The country is interested to work with Singapore on emerging areas such as artificial intelligence and low-carbon technologies, and this visit will see PM Lee and his delegation meeting Emirati leaders to explore other areas of cooperation, said the Prime Minister’s press secretary.
The Prime Minister was accompanied by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Maliki Osman, who is also Second Minister for Foreign Affairs and Education; Manpower Minister and Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng; Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment and Transport Amy Khor; and Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information and Health Janil Puthucheary.
A Singapore Business Federation delegation of about 30 business leaders from sectors such as finance, energy and maritime also visited the Middle East this week to gain insights to the business landscape in the Gulf Arab state and forge new partnerships.
Agritech firm Archisen, for instance, is hoping to deploy its urban farming solutions in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and is seeking partners in food distribution, finance and construction.
Solar energy contractor Clean Kinetics has installed about 1.95 million solar modules in Abu Dhabi’s two-gigawatt Al-Dhafra solar project, which translates to about half of the project’s energy capacity.
“We are interested in participating in future solar projects in the region and (finding) other opportunities, including the recycling and robotic cleaning of solar panels and the use of drones for inspection,” said Clean Kinetics’ chief development officer Lee Kah Lup.
