The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar has said that the ongoing Sustainability Week in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has provided Nigeria the opportunity to concretize agreements reached with partners at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) held in Brazil last year.

Responding to questions from journalists ahead of President Bola Tinubu’s speech at the event, Tuggar said: “The Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week happens in between the COP; we just had the COP in Brazil.

“So, in between you need to concretize some of the agreements that have been reached, otherwise it just ends up being a talk shop. “So events such as the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week provide the opportunity to extract certain tangible projects, commitments, funding that perhaps have been agreed.

“And in the case of Nigeria, we have a deficit in terms of project preparation. “So, this presents an opportunity to come with identified projects and try and source the funding from some of the countries and the organizations that are going to be in attendance. Last year Nigeria also participated at that previous event.”

On how Nigeria is currently engaging the UAE, Tuggar said “Tunabu is going to have a bilateral with the President of the United Arab Emirates, His Highness Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

And one of the things to be discussed there is the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which is expected to be signed during that bilateral agreement.

He said: “So, this sort of concretizes some of the discussions that have been going on and some of the investment opportunities because a lot of investors from the UAE side are saying they want that agreement to be signed so that they ensure their investments will be protected once it’s signed and they come in with the investments.