Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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111. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on relations between Ireland and Kuwait. [43127/24]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Ireland enjoys good relations with Kuwait. Ambassador Alison Milton, based in Abu Dhabi, represents Ireland in Kuwait. Kuwait opened an Embassy in Dublin in 2022, and Ambassador Mohammad M F M Al-Mohammad presented credentials to President Higgins in February 2023.

Relations between Ireland and Kuwait continue to develop, with the main areas of cooperation being in education, healthcare and advanced technologies. Kuwaiti students make up a large proportion of students studying in Ireland from the Gulf States. These scholarship students were previously supported by the Kuwaiti Cultural Office, which has since been incorporated into the Kuwaiti Embassy. A large cohort of the Kuwaiti students focus their studies in the fields of medicine and medicinal related disciplines.

Kuwait has long played a constructive role in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), with which Ireland and the EU engage regularly on various issues. Ireland and Kuwait were both represented at the first EU-GCC Summit meeting in Brussels last week.