The Israeli press reported June 20 that Foreign Minister Yair Lapid is planning to travel to the United Arab Emirates next week for a two-day visit. It will be his first foreign trip since taking up his post, and the first visit ever of an Israeli minister to the country. Lapid’s spokesperson said June 21, “Israel-UAE ties are an important relationship whose fruit is enjoyed not only by the citizens of the two countries, but the entire Middle East.”

The Israeli minister is set to meet with his Emirati counterpart Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It is not yet known if he will also meet with the Emirati monarch. Lapid is also expected to inaugurate the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Israeli Consulate in Dubai.

After the signing of the Abraham Accords normalizing ties between Israel and the Emirates and Bahrain, then-Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi was invited by his Bharani counterpart Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani to participate in the international 2020 Manama Dialogue conference. Ashkenazi was thus set to be the first Israeli minister to officially visit to Bahrain, where he would inaugurate Israel’s embassy in Manama. Eventually, the visit did not take place, as then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided no ministers would visit either Bahrain or the Emirates before he made the trip.

Netanyahu was scheduled to visit both countries during the last election campaign. But on March 11, shortly before he was due to depart, Netanyahu was forced to cancel his visit to the Emirates, as Jordan had delayed its approval for the plane to pass through its aerial space.