UAE helps change negative stereotype of Arab-Muslim world

Gulf News. Millions of tourists visiting the UAE help change the negative stereotype of the Arab and Muslim world, a senior European Union diplomat said.
"These tourists will share their experience of peace, prosperity and tolerance in the UAE when they go back to their home countries, presenting a different positive story about the Arab world", Thomas Peyker, charge d’Affaires at the European Union (EU) Mission in Abu Dhabi, said.
"Ninety per cent of news coming from the Arab world does not help change the negative stereotype of Arabs and Muslims but the UAE tells a different story", he told reporters in an informal meeting last Sunday.
Over 1.6 million EU visitors travel to the UAE every year, according to the EU.
The EU has designated delegations to around 140 countries across the globe. The Mission in Abu Dhabi is the second diplomatic mission in the Gulf after the mission in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia that deals with other Gulf states. The mission, which opened in June 2013, shows the importance the EU attaches to the UAE.
The mission, currently headed by the charge d’affaires, represents all wings of the EU. It conducts monthly meetings with the ambassadors of EU member nations in the UAE for information exchange, and to discuss topics of common interest.
The UAE hosts embassies of 22 EU member states. More than 150,000 EU citizens are permanent residents in the UAE.
The UAE has a major role in ensuring stability in the region, Peyker said.
The EU has been cooperating with the UAE in several fields, including counter-terrorism, energy, environment, climate change and non-proliferation, he said.
As part of EU-UAE cooperation on counter-terrorism, there is an agreement to hold annual political Counter Terrorism dialogues. The UAE also hosts the Hedayah CVE Centre (Countering Violent Extremism) in Abu Dhabi, and the EU is one of eight board members.
The UAE will host a European Union CBRN (chemical, bacteriological, radiological and nuclear threats) Centre of Excellence for risk mitigation to be opened this year. This initiative is funded by the EU Instrument for Stability and aims at developing, at national and regional levels, the necessary institutional capacity to fight against the CBRN risk.
The EU and UAE have close cooperation on maritime security also.
Development is another area where the EU partners with the UAE, especially in the Middle East and in Africa.