Announcing tectonic shifts in the geopolitical order has become a reflex, as though the observation itself were a novel conclusion. The international system has never been static; change is inevitable, it is shaped by context, and by the choices states make under conditions of uncertainty.
In our current moment of polarisation, weakened institutions, and fraying norms, we should not choose to narrow cooperation to what is immediately convenient, or treat partnership as an episodic occurrence. We should take a different course. The UAE has made a choice—the necessary choice—to invest in partnerships able to evolve with shifting conditions, anchored in shared principles and strengthened by a commitment to sustained dialogue. Anchored in resilience, these partnerships are our greatest asset, and our surest path to stability in volatile times. When politics diverge, economic ties falter, or global shocks occur, this resilience provides a mechanism to manage disagreement and prevent it from hardening into rupture.
For the UAE, our relationship with Europe figures prominently in this approach. Europe remains a consequential global actor, where the UAE can stand as a geopolitical connector, situated at the crossroads of global trade, security dynamics, and technological innovation. We share a stake in the same systems and bring complementary capabilities to strengthen them. Importantly, we are united in our shared values, and our belief that periods of uncertainty reward those who build bridges, not walls.
When the international environment undergoes periods of unpredictability, the relevant question becomes whether partnership can produce, in practice, the resilience needed to surmount the challenges of the coming era. On this measure, the UAE-Europe relationship is already proven, passing three “tests” of resilience. Together, we have demonstrated that we can generate prosperity despite strain, reinforce stability within fluctuating systems, and support security and human dignity in times of crisis. These are the products of the diligent work that characterises our longstanding relationship and illustrate areas of strength for our partnership’s future.
Generating Prosperity Under Strain
Prosperity is capacity. It determines a country’s manoeuvrability under strain through growth and opportunity. The economic layer of the UAE-Europe relationship is already substantial, and our ties have both the scale and structural ability to reinforce resilience. Annual trade with the EU reached €55.6 billion in goods and over €39 billion in services in 2025, placing the bloc among the UAE’s most significant trading partners. The EU remains a major destination for Emirati investment, while the UAE serves as a critical export and investment hub for European firms operating across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Mutual investments between the UAE and EU amount to over €328 billion, significant at a time when the ability to sustain open, predictable trade and investment flows has become a strategic asset in its own right.
Technology is reshaping how value is created, becoming a key driver of prosperity and a core component of diplomacy. Strategic dialogues, regulatory exchanges, and corporate partnerships on emerging technologies, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), have added a key dimension to UAE-Europe relations. Europe has taken a leading role in AI governance, developing regulatory frameworks that centre transparency, accountability, and human oversight. The UAE has invested heavily in AI infrastructure, talent development, and AI diplomacy. In 2025, AI adoption in the UAE reached over 90 percent, among the highest in the world, and we now count more than 450,000 programmers nationwide. Investments directed toward artificial intelligence exceeded €126 billion in 2024 and 2025.
This convergence is already producing concrete initiatives. Launched last year, the UAE-France Framework for Cooperation in Artificial Intelligence includes projects in renewable energy, advanced semiconductors, joint research platforms, and investment in a 1-gigawatt computing complex in France. Our collaboration reflects a shared recognition that capacity and trusted interoperability will shape the next phase of the AI era. Systems will need to communicate across borders, platforms, and legal frameworks, while operating within agreed standards and safeguards. That interoperability will determine whether we, in collaboration with our European partners, harness AI’s productivity gains while mitigating risks, including those to digital sovereignty.
Our approach is also rooted in an understanding that Europe’s digital future depends on trusted partners, sustainable infrastructure, and shared strategic intent. In February 2025, the UAE and Italy agreed to elevate cooperation on artificial intelligence, data infrastructure, and digital transformation, with the UAE committing billions in investment across these sectors. At the industrial level, UAE entities MGX and G42 have signed a Letter of Intent with Italy’s Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi (ENI) establishing plans to develop data centre infrastructure in Italy, with a potential capacity of up to 1 gigawatt. In parallel, our Ministry of Investment and the Italian government agreed to cooperate on establishing green data centres with a capacity target of up to 2 gigawatts, supporting economic competitiveness, technological sovereignty, and stability in the long-term.
Reinforcing Systems Under Transition
Prosperity, however, depends on functioning systems. The UAE maintains a deep commitment to multilateralism and adherence to international law, and we share that commitment with our partners across Europe. As beneficiaries of a rules-based international order, we have a shared interest in sustaining the frameworks that preserve stability. At the same time, we share an understanding that institutions must be able to respond more effectively to contemporary crises. Reform of shared institutions like the United Nations has become a condition for relevance. Keeping pace with geopolitical developments means ensuring our international systems are efficient, equitable, and capable of serving humanity towards sustainable prosperity. Advocacy and support for this reform are necessary to preserve the credibility of multilateral institutions in a more plural and contested world.
The energy sector is likewise undergoing a systems-level transformation, with the growing global pursuit of net-zero reimagining economic competitiveness and reinvigorating international cooperation. Europe’s ambitious decarbonisation agenda has heightened demand for diversified energy sources and technologies, including renewables, hydrogen, and energy storage. The UAE’s own energy transition—comprising cleaner hydrocarbon production with large-scale investment in clean energy—creates complementarities that extend beyond short-term supply considerations.
In January 2017, the UAE launched the national “Energy Strategy 2050” to increase the contribution of clean energy in the total energy mix from 25 percent to 50 percent by 2050 and reduce the carbon footprint of power generation by 70 percent. The UAE in July 2023 also announced plans to invest around €46.09 billion in renewables by 2030 to reach net zero emissions by 2050. The UAE has been a proactive actor within multilateral climate efforts, helping—in partnership with the EU—drive the adoption of the landmark UAE Consensus during the UNFCCC COP28, a commitment to transition away from fossil fuels by tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency, reaffirming the Paris Agreement.
Partnership becomes more durable when anchored in long-horizon projects. Since 2023, Masdar, the UAE’s renewable energy company, has invested almost €4.17 billion of new capital in projects totalling around 8 gigawatts across 6 EU countries, primarily in Greece, Spain and Germany. The UAE has also partnered with firms such as Austria’s OMV on a green hydrogen project, linking the UAE directly to Europe’s industrial decarbonisation agenda. The 140-megawatt plant is expected to rank among Europe’s five largest hydrogen facilities and is scheduled to begin operations at the end of 2027. Through the project, OMV will produce up to 23,000 tons of green hydrogen annually using renewable energy from wind, solar, and hydropower, saving up to 150,000 tons of carbon emissions per year. Projects like this demonstrate how energy cooperation can be converted into shared strategic assets, strengthening resilience through co-investment, technology exchange, and the joint management of risk. The premise is practical: energy systems must remain reliable even as they become cleaner, and transitions are most sustainable when they are orderly rather than abrupt.
Upholding Stability in Crisis
Partnership also promotes responsibility in crisis. The UAE and Europe both operate in regions navigating volatility. We share a responsibility to uphold principled diplomacy, pursue humanitarian action that protects human dignity, and cooperate against threats that undermine coexistence.
Humanitarian engagement is a core point of convergence in our foreign policy identity. The UAE has positioned humanitarian aid and development assistance as central pillars of its international engagement and is ranked one of the world’s leading humanitarian aid donors by the UN. The UAE was one of the world’s top humanitarian donors, contributing over €1.3 billion to support global relief efforts in 2025. European states, collectively and individually, are likewise among the world’s most generous humanitarian donors and most influential actors in the humanitarian system, with the European Commission in 2025 contributing around €2.6 billion to address urgent global crises.
Our humanitarian cooperation extends across global crises, including Ukraine, Gaza, and Sudan, grounded in a shared commitment to alleviating suffering and centring human dignity. According to UN data, the UAE has been the largest humanitarian donor to Gaza since 2023, contributing 44 percent of total international assistance received. The UAE has delivered over 90,000 tons of humanitarian aid via land, sea, and air routes, with a total value of over €1.5 billion, including 81 airdrops under the “Birds of Goodness” initiative carrying more than 4,076 tons of food and essential supplies. In 2024 the UAE and the Republic of Cyprus partnered to deliver aid through the “Amalthea” maritime corridor, in operational cooperation with UNOPS and the World Central Kitchen. The European Commission, Germany, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands, all served as initial partners, alongside the United Kingdom and United States.
The UAE also recently hosted trilateral talks in Abu Dhabi, bringing together representatives of Russia, Ukraine, and the United States to make steps toward ending a crisis that has resulted in immense humanitarian suffering. Since 2023, the UAE has successfully facilitated 17 mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, the last instance of which resulted in the release of an additional 146 Russian captives and 146 Ukrainian captives, bringing the total number of prisoners exchanged through UAE mediation efforts to 4,641.
Security is intertwined with social cohesion. Fragmented responses to crises can hinder efforts to ensure stability and create openings for extremism. Both of our regions have been targets of extremist attacks. We share an understanding of the need to counter extremism in all its forms, and a recognition that the task is social, and requires partnership to build resilient communities.
The UAE’s approach centres tolerance, both as statecraft and social infrastructure. It is not just a method through which to push back against extremist ideologies, it is the foundation of a healthy, safe, and successful society. The UAE’s diverse population of 200 nationalities—which include over 670,000 European nationals—live, work, and worship in peace, supported by strong policies on tolerance. Students are taught respect across faiths, reinforced by initiatives like the Abrahamic Family House, which hosts a mosque, church, and synagogue on the same grounds, marking a tangible symbol of our national values.
The Path Forward
The world is heading towards a new configuration of power. The debate around its shape is vast, and its trajectory is not predetermined. Choices made by states that build partnerships, sustain dialogue, and keep systems functional through change will matter.
The coming decade will reward partners who can maintain coordination while global systems evolve. The UAE-Europe partnership has demonstrated that it has as a flexible, multi-layered framework, with resilience that rests on shared principles, diversification, and institutionalised cooperation. This is where the UAE-Europe partnership has an opportunity over the coming months and years by concluding two landmark agreements with the potential to accelerate the UAE and Europe’s shared goals. Cooperation has advanced towards the UAE-EU Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which promises to further anchor prosperity by deepening trade and investment flows while preserving flexibility and creating clearer pathways for cooperation in emerging sectors. Negotiations for a Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) were launched in 2025, and with them the possibility of strengthened coordination across trade and investment, technology and innovation, and humanitarian action. These instruments reduce friction, functioning as shock absorbers by institutionalising dialogue, dispute resolution, and long-term coordination across economic and regulatory domains. They improve predictability and raise the cost of rupture.
As the world reorganises around new fault lines, the challenges of the coming decade will demand a choice. Investing in resilient partnerships is a decision. So is drift. The contested system will measure international partnerships by their resilience, by what they can sustain under pressure. The UAE-Europe relationship has shown the possibility, and necessity, of such resilience, proving that the tides of change are best navigated together.
