Israel’s foreign minister flew to Bahrain on Thursday, the highest-level official Israeli visit to the Gulf state since the countries established ties last year.
While there, Yair Lapid will inaugurate Israel’s embassy in Manama, hold discussions with his counterpart and sign bilateral deals, a Foreign Ministry statement said.
“The main areas in which Bahrain is looking for cooperation have to do with the economy and technology, and a few of the [memorandums of understanding] that will be signed will be about that,” the spokesperson said, without elaborating.
He said 12 memorandums of understanding have been signed so far between the two countries, among them deals relating to transportation, agriculture, communication and finance.
Bahrain and Gulf neighbor United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel in a U.S.-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords that built on shared business interests and worries about Iran.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Bahraini Foreign Minister Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani in New York. “We are stable, and we believe in this relationship,” Bennett added on the regional normalization accords that were signed about a year ago.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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