President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband during the latter’s visit in November. Picture: Emirates News Agency, WAM.

During his visit to Abu Dhabi in late November, British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs David Miliband delivered a major speech at the Emirates Centre for Scientific Studies and Research, ECSSR, commencing with a review of Britain’s long relationship with the Emirates. Extracts follows.

No Foreign Secretary can come here without a sense of wonderment at what is being achieved. The UAE in general and Abu Dhabi in particular have become a global success story; a demonstration to the world of what is possible in the Middle East. A model of openness: business-friendly, tolerant, peaceful and responsible. In a region scarred by violence and division, the UAE is a microcosm of what a successful Middle East can become.

In just two generations, you have created some of the most advanced and inspiring cities in the world. The UAE economy has doubled in size in just four years. Per capita income now bears comparison with rich European countries. And the GCC is now ranked fifth in the list of world exporters, surpassed only by the US, EU, Japan and China.

This country does not just sit on a tenth of the world’s oil. It is also home to the financial capital of this region, to the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund and to a generation of dynamic business and political leaders who have secured your place at the cutting edge of not just commercial but also scientific enterprise.

It is an indication of your foresight that energy – nuclear and renewables – should have brought you together.This region, like many others, is facing a looming energy shortage. Our response in Britain has determined that enhancing our civil nuclear capacity is crucial for us in meeting this challenge. The approach you have taken sets a high standard for states which seek responsibly to acquire a civil nuclear capacity, and I am delighted that we have signed a bilateral agreement to support you…

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and the UAE Foreign Minister, HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, during Miliband’s November visit to Abu Dhabi. Picture: Emirates News Agency, WAM.

But while no British Foreign Secretary can come without a sense of wonderment, nor can he or she come here without a sense of the shared history – for 200 years - between our countries. It is a unique relationship of which we in the UK are intensely proud. It is a partnership which has left a deep well of experience, affection, respect and, most important, trust…

Since the discovery of oil, British companies have worked with you to help improve extraction and refinery. And British expertise, in education, in healthcare, in construction, in banking, in commercial law, in police training, has played its part in the UAE’s development in recent decades. Now there are 140 direct flights each week, with half a million visitors from the UAE to the UK and one million tourists the other way…

Under almost any conceivable political and economic circumstances, Britain’s interests will remain deeply bound to the fortunes of this region. Because our economic interdependence means that we both have a stake in each other’s prosperity. Trade between the UK and the Middle East and North Africa is worth £29bn a year. The GCC is the EU’s sixth largest export market and the EU is the GCC’s primary trading partner. Because with sixty percent of the planet’s oil reserves and forty percent of its gas, this region is key to ensuring that the world’s growing appetite for energy can be met...

So the question for us all then, is how we can safeguard our peace and prosperity for the future. How we can protect the economic, political and social gains of the last fifty years, and maximise our opportunities for the future? Projecting forward I see three threats.

This first is economic, because there is a risk that the current economic downturn will provoke siren voices to call for a return to protectionism and an end to the globalisation on which our economies so depend.

The second is political, because there are two competing trends. One, where pragmatism rules, where shared solutions are developed in response to shared problems, and where diplomacy is the basis for engagement. The other is characterised by the violent opposition of extremist organisations such as Al Qaeda. And here I will focus on the Palestinian-Israeli dispute, because ending the injustices that have persisted for too many decades is critical to ensuring that in this region the former wins out over the latter, that the politics of collaboration defeats the politics of confrontation.

Finally, security, where I believe the most immediate challenge is from the proliferation of nuclear material and the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran.

In the last six months we have seen world share prices fall 50 percent, huge volatility in the price of oil and other assets, and global financial institutions booking almost one thousand billion dollars of write-downs. Global growth is slowing sharply. We need a policy response to match the challenge...

We must resist protectionism in all its forms. That is why it is imperative that we work together urgently to break the deadlock in the Doha trade round…

It is also why we must ensure openness to investment. Investment flows from Abu Dhabi and the Gulf are part of the answer to the financial crisis, bringing much needed capital and stability...

Sovereign Wealth Funds are now recognised as valuable participants in the international financial system. I particularly welcome the best practice set out in the Santiago Principles, in whose formulation Abu Dhabi played such an important role…

Britain has long argued that our international institutions, both political and financial, need to be reformed to reflect the growing importance of countries such as your own. So we are very pleased to see more emerging economies now assuming their seat at the top table. We firmly believe that those who are able to contribute to solutions to the global crisis should be involved as partners in whatever architecture emerges.

On the Middle-East Peace Process we are at a similarly critical juncture. Because if the status quo continues, I believe that the prospect of peace could disappear forever...

My conclusion is that the only peace will be a comprehensive peace. A peace with an independent Palestinian state at its core, but underpinned by a broader peace between Israel and the whole Arab world.

And I am convinced that such a peace is our best, if not our only, hope... For too long the countries of the region have been kept at one if not several removes from the peace process… When the Arab Peace Initiative was launched in 2002 it was simply not given the attention it deserved. It was - and still is - one of the most significant and promising developments since the start of the conflict…

President-elect Obama has signalled that he understands the stakes. Arab leaders will do well to show him that the API offer is still on the table; that this offer actively invites a serious Israeli counter offer; and that there is a clear path for both sides to peace and normalisation. Europe needs to be there in support, and I believe it will be.

The threat from nuclear weapons is by definition the most deadly. As nuclear power becomes a more important source of energy, we face a growing risk of nuclear proliferation. That is the significance of the UAE programme, in explicitly framing its plans to counter this threat… I remain convinced that the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran poses the most immediate threat to the stability of this region…

I believe that what happens over the next few years in this region… is of vital importance not just here but across the planet.

It is possible to see two very different visions of the Middle East that might emerge.

In the first, Israel-Palestine remains a sore, fuelling ideologies of hatred and revenge across the region. Iran attains a nuclear weapon, emboldening extremists and sparking a nuclear arms race which diverts attention away from development. Demographics and climate change lead to new tensions to which the countries of the region are poorly placed to respond.

Alternatively, the positive, pragmatic dynamics of the new Middle East gain ground… New challenges are met through collective diplomacy, and the boundless energy of the Arab youth is channelled into business and technological innovation.

This is the world where Arab renewal follows your example, not just here in the Gulf, but across the Middle East and North Africa. It is the world Britain is committed to working with you to create.