The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council hosted The Honorable Frank A. Rose, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance at the U.S. Department of State for a private, closed-door roundtable dinner in Abu Dhabi. Senior U.S. government officials in attendance included The Honorable Barbara Leaf, U.S. Ambassador to the U.A.E., and Dr. Peppino DeBiaso, Director, Office of Missile Defense Policy, U.S. Department of Defense. They were joined by Danny Sebright, President of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, senior private sector stakeholders in the U.S. defense industry, and prominent military figures including Brigadier General Jose R. Monteagudo, Mobilization Assistant to the Commander of the U.S. Air Forces Central Command and Colonel Kevin Eastland, Vice Commander of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing, Southwest Asia, U.S. Air Force.

Mr. Rose thanked the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council for hosting the dinner and for providing an excellent platform to discuss the overall economic, political, and military relationship between the U.S. and the U.A.E. Mr. Rose then went on to highlight the U.A.E.’s missile defense capabilities by saying, “the United States and the U.A.E. have a very strong bilateral relationship when it comes to ballistic missile defense (BMD). The U.A.E. continues to be a key U.S. BMD partner in the region.  The U.A.E.’s procurement of the most sophisticated ballistic missile defense systems from the United States enable it to make a major contribution to regional security and stability in response to the growing threat from ballistic missiles.”

Mr. Sebright thanked attendees and gave a special thanks to The Honorable Frank Rose, The Honorable Barbara Leaf, and other distinguished guests for their participation.