TEHRAN- Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister for political affairs of Iran, visited Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to discuss bilateral relations and regional issues with the Arab country’s authorities.

Bagheri stated in a tweet on Tuesday that he had visited the UAE to strengthen bilateral ties and to have a conversation about regional concerns.  

The visit comes two weeks after Emirati Minister of State Khalifa Shaheen Al Marar traveled to Tehran to hold talks with Bagheri.

The UAE has moved to improve its political ties with Iran seven years after downgrading diplomatic relations when demonstrators stormed Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Tehran following Riyadh’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric.

The foreign ministers of Iran and the UAE spoke over the phone on April 22 and emphasized the value of intensifying bilateral cooperation, particularly with regard to connections between the two countries’ private sectors.

Bagheri Kani also serves as Iran’s chief representative in international negotiations to update a 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the West.

Additionally, in Abu Dhabi he met and spoke with his counterparts from the UK, France, and Germany, the European troika that are still signatory to the nuclear agreement.

“Continuing with diplomatic consultations with regional and extra-regional parties, we met our German, French and British counterparts and discussed a range of issues and mutual concerns,” he tweeted Tuesday.