The validity of a US visa for Bahrainis will be increased from the present five years to 10 years, revealed a top envoy.
US Ambassador to Bahrain Justin Siberell said a decision will be announced shortly regarding the visit-visa validity as part of an agreement between the two countries.
“We have recently agreed with the Bahrain government and will have an announcement soon to extend the visa validity between the two countries to 10 years for both sides. It is currently five years,” the diplomat revealed.
“It is an issue we are closely following with the government and I am pleased to say that there will be an announcement about this in the coming days.”
The outgoing ambassador was speaking during a ‘virtual farewell’ organised yesterday by the American Chamber of Commerce Bahrain, viewed by fellow diplomats, senior government officials and business leaders.
Mr Siberell explained the decision to extend the visa validity aims to further strengthen the partnership between both nations, as well as boosting travel and trade opportunities.
“We are focused on the issue of trade and travel facilitation and there have been some exciting steps taken in particular with Gulf Air expanding its network,” he added.
“We would love to see a direct flight initiated between the United States and Bahrain and everyone is working hard on this with some draft agreements in place.”
The envoy told the participants that boosting trade relations between the two countries was top of his agenda when he took up the position in 2017.
“When I arrived here, we looked at the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to see how it had performed or whether it had achieved all it could.
“The answer, in some cases, was that it had not fully achieved its potential and that more could be done.
“Starting from a position of just less than $100 million in two-way trade in 2005, we have grown that partnership in 2018 to more than $3 billion.”
The US shares a FTA with Bahrain, one of only two such agreements between the US and a GCC country.
Its purpose is to increase trade, economic opportunity and prosperity for both parties.
The FTA came into force in January 2006 with US exports featuring machinery, appliances, medical instruments, vehicles, alongside sound and television equipment, while the top commodities that Bahrain exported to the US included aluminium, oil, textiles, iron and steel, plus plastics.
Mr Siberell said the embassy had engaged with potential Bahrain exporters to the US and vice versa to view the FTA as a mutually-beneficial trade instrument.
“It’s important that we have trade flowing in both directions, and we have seen American investments, but the important growth area is in cyber security.
“We have worked very hard at the embassy to support US companies looking to strengthen their position here and in the region.”
Meanwhile, the envoy praised the efforts of Oil Minister Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, who was among the attendees of the webinar yesterday.
The diplomat highlighted the growing partnership between the two countries in the oil sector, in light of the 2018 discovery in Bahrain of the largest oil and gas find since 1932 off its west coast, estimated to contain at least 80 billion barrels of tight oil.
On the defence front, he spoke about the US government contract to produce 16 new F-16 Block 70 aircraft for the Royal Bahraini Air Force. Bahrain is the first customer to procure the F-16 with advance configuration as part of a $1.12bn contract with Lockheed Martin that was signed in 2017.
Furthermore, during the webinar the GDN questioned the diplomat about the recent agreement he signed with the Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa to enhance counter-terrorism co-operation.
“The agreement is part of our ongoing security co-operation and the Interior Ministry has been a tremendous partner of the United States,” replied Mr Siberell.
The diplomat signed a letter of agreement on Tuesday with the Interior Minister to promote bilateral ties in the detection of explosives and other related materials, as part of counter-terrorism training and co-operation.
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