BRITAIN\u2019S ambassador to Bahrain has described UK\u2019s impending exit from the European Union (EU) as an \u201cexciting new departure\u201d.<\/p>\n
Simon Martin said Brexit would actually help the UK \u201cre-engage with old partners\u201d including Bahrain.<\/p>\n
Last week British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, beginning a two-year process that would see the UK leave the European Union and sever a political relationship that has lasted 44 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think from my position as ambassador in Bahrain, it is a very exciting new departure where there will be many new opportunities for Britain and Bahrain, and the GCC more generally, to collaborate and that will become clear as terms of our departure from the European Union becomes clearer,\u201d said Mr Martin.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about free trade agreement but that\u2019s one thing that we will be looking at.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not leaving Europe but we are taking advantage of this opportunity to really start to try to re-engage with old partners, reinvigorate old partnerships, to reconnect with old friends around the world and rebuild and energise relationships that perhaps we have not been able to focus on as much when we were a member of the European Union.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the start of a very interesting time for Britain in its relationship with the countries of the Gulf.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theresa May visited Bahrain in December as a special guest at the 37th annual GCC Summit, where she pledged \u00a33 billion in Gulf defence spending over the next decade.<\/p>\n
She also said the UK was eyeing an \u201cambitious trade arrangement\u201d with the Gulf once it officially left the EU as an agreement to bolster political, defence, security and trade relationships between the GCC and UK was reached during the summit.<\/p>\n
Mr Martin, however, said even post Brexit the UK would remain \u201cinextricably entwined\u201d with its European partners.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt indeed gives us an opportunity to be more decisive and more independent in our relationships with other parts of the world, and that applies particularly with the Gulf where we have such broad and long standing relationships,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe see a wonderful opportunity, to develop a relationship between the UK and the GCC, especially Bahrain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe set out a vision with number of specify areas in business investment and people to people \u2013 GCC and the UK are committed to work together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe agreed to work together on a very specific area which is protecting our children from the risks of the Internet, to protect young children from being exposed and this is not just about radicalisation but also about pornography and some of the very nasty threats which we as parents worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Martin was speaking during a media round-table held at the UK Embassy in Ras Ruman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRITAIN\u2019S ambassador to Bahrain has described UK\u2019s impending exit from the European Union (EU) as an \u201cexciting new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-814796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116200314555837084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}