The United Kingdom and Oman set out a broader economic and security partnership, with UK Export Finance increasing its country limit for Oman by £1.6 billion to support British exports.
The Oct. 23 joint statement said the limit now allows for as much as £7 billion in export-finance capacity. That is not a confirmed loan total: the statement named no projects expected to use the added capacity and set no allocation schedule.
The statement followed Sultan Haitham bin Tarik’s visit and records his Oct. 21 meeting with UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham at 10 Downing Street. The two governments announced a Sovereign Partnership for Cooperation and Promotion of Investment, linking the UK Office for Investment with the Oman Investment Authority. Its priorities include green growth, advanced technologies, critical minerals, space, scale-up finance and industrial clusters.
A separate UK government announcement said UK-founded Yamna was expected to sign an agreement for an artificial intelligence data center in Salalah. The project’s first phase was projected to exceed £1 billion and create more than 100 highly skilled jobs across the UK. The announcement gave no construction timetable or operating capacity.
The UK said Oman had invested £1.7 billion in Britain since the countries began an earlier Sovereign Investment Partnership in 2022. British exports to Oman totaled £1.1 billion over the four quarters through the first quarter of 2026, according to the UK government.
On security, the statement welcomed preparations for the Saif Sareea IV military exercise and described plans to explore further exercises, maritime-security information sharing and closer cybersecurity cooperation. It also reaffirmed support for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
The statement discussed further steps toward signing a UK-Gulf Cooperation Council free trade agreement. A UK summary from June said negotiations had concluded on May 20, but the legal text and signing arrangements still needed completion at that time, followed by domestic procedures before the agreement could take effect.
