Germany, Qatar vow to boost economic ties

Germany and Qatar’s leaders vowed on Friday to boost economic and trade ties between the two countries.

Speaking at a Qatar-Germany business forum in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel underlined that Qatar has been an important economic partner of Germany, and expressed interest in closer cooperation in the energy sector.

"Today, Qatar is the largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in the world," Merkel stressed and added that LNG has recently become more important for energy security and diversification.

"Our federal government is working on further developing the LNG infrastructure in Germany, and several companies are considering and working on projects to construct an LNG important terminal in Germany," she said.

Merkel said German companies could also be interested in LNG imports from Qatar, but underlined that such decisions on gas purchases were always made according to the economic criteria.

Speaking at the same forum, Qatar's Emir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani said his country is planning to make €10 billion direct investments in Germany in the next five years.

"We are proud of our relations and our cooperation with Germany," al-Thani said and invited German companies to invest in his country.