Israel officially opened its embassy in Bahrain on Monday as both agreed to boost trade ties, three years after both sides normalised ties and as Washington presses Riyadh for a similar deal that would be Israel’s biggest diplomatic win in the region.
Israel’s foreign minister agreed with his Bahraini counterpart to boost trade relations, during his first visit to one of the two Gulf Arab states to establish ties with Israel.
“The foreign minister and I agreed that we should work together to increase the number of direct flights, the tourism, the trade volume, the investment,” Eli Cohen said during the ceremony to inaugurate Israel’s new embassy.
Monday’s ceremony was attended by Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, who said the “new embassy assumes a pivotal role” in growing collaboration between the two countries.
Al Zayani said his talks with Cohen on Monday resulted in an agreement on advancing “relations across the broadest range of fields, including, economic, investment, trade and other areas”.
Cohen arrived in Bahrain on Sunday, accompanied by a business delegation of more than 30 companies working in high-tech, logistics, and real estate.
