VATICAN CITY: The Vatican and Oman have established diplomatic relations, a joint statement said Thursday, three months after a visit by Pope Francis to the Gulf.

There are currently 12 Catholic priests working in four parishes in Oman and the local population includes a “significant number of foreign workers”, it said. The pontiff visited Bahrain in November, his second visit to the Gulf since becoming pope in 2013. His first visit was to the United Arab Emirates in 2019. Oman’s parishes are part of the Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia, which is based in Abu Dhabi.