Israel and the United Arab Emirate have signed their first agreement in the normalization talks – a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on banking and finance. This is also the most important economic agreement because it will allow businesses and businesspeople to carry out deals.
As part of the agreement banks in Israel and the UAE will connect to each other through the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) network – the mechanism that allows direct international payments between banks. Until today, Israeli companies wanting to do business covertly in the UAE had to set up offshore companies in Europe, Singapore or elsewhere.
The agreement was reached as part of talks currently underway in Abu Dhabi between senior Israeli and UAE officials. At the request of the UAE, seven working groups have been set up in the fields of diplomacy, finance, science and technology, tourism, culture, agriculture, and cybersecurity-intelligence. In this initial stage, the aims of the meetings are for the Israelis to talk with their UAE counterparts on the content of agreements which will be drawn up. The agreements will be signed in Washington in three weeks.
Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on September 1, 2020 © Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2020