WASHINGTON –
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis met today at the White House with United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan to discuss the U.S.-UAE defense partnership, the Pentagon’s chief spokesperson, Dana W. White, said in a statement about the meeting.
Their meeting followed the crown prince's inaugural visit with President Donald J. Trump, she said.
At the meeting, Mattis and Prince Mohammed, who is also the deputy supreme commander of UAE’s armed forces, lauded the conclusion of a new bilateral defense cooperation agreement, which, White said, will enable closer and more agile collaboration against a range of threats over the next fifteen years.
"The agreement marks a new chapter in our partnership and reflects the breadth and depth of our ongoing cooperation, which is underpinned by the mutual respect we share for the professionalism and efficacy of our armed forces,” Mattis said, according to the statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with the UAE in support of security and stability in the Middle East and around the world."
The two leaders discussed a range of shared security threats, White said, including the ongoing instability in Yemen and Libya and the campaign in Iraq and Syria to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. They also affirmed their shared values and interests, she said, including freedom of navigation, territorial sovereignty for the states of the Arabian Peninsula and the fight against extremism.