Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird shakes hands with UAE ambassador Mohamed Saif Helal al-Shehhi after making a statement in Ottawa yesterday.
The United Arab Emirates will nix costly visa requirements imposed on Canadian travellers as of June 1, officials said yesterday, ending a row between the two countries that started in 2010 over aviation rights. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, had agreed last month to restoring the previous visa regime. The agreement has now been formalised, Baird told reporters, calling it “a tremendously important signal to the world that bilateral relations between our two countries are strong and getting stronger each and every day”. “We are on an upward trajectory,” he said.