UAE adviser: We are shifting from geopolitical to geoeconomic diplomacy

NEW YORK: The UAE is moving away from traditional geopolitical diplomacy to geoeconomic strategies that focus on joint economic initiatives to benefit the country and its regional and international partners, the senior diplomatic adviser to the president said on Wednesday.
“The region needs stability, but you can’t promote stability to people who are struggling in their daily lives. You have to also talk about prosperity … Stability is only for the rich,” Dr. Anwar Gargash told the inaugural Global Middle East Summit in New York.
The event — organized by Al-Monitor and Semafor, and attended by Arab News — gathered policymakers and business leaders from across the Middle East and around the world to discuss current and future developments in the region.
“We’re here because we believe in multilateralism,” said Gargash, adding that the UAE has made strides to break out onto the global stage, including attending its fourth G20 meeting, becoming part of the BRICS group, and hosting COP28 later this year.
“We’ve been one of the Middle Eastern countries that has taken an interest in climate and energy transition for more than 15, 16 years,” he said, stressing the UAE’s commitment to the development of green energy.
Regarding US engagement in the Middle East, Gargash said: “For us, it’s extremely important that the US remains, that there are no vacuums. When you have vacuums, it’s an opportunity for other players to move into the region.”
He added: “I can see there’s a commitment of the US coming to our defense and committing to our security for the next 30 years.”
On Iran, Gargash referred to any potential efforts to implement another nuclear deal as “beating a dead horse,” adding: “We aren’t trying to solve issues we haven’t been able to solve in the last 30 years. Our message is more about getting Iran involved in initiatives of greater economic issues for them.”
He described the Abraham Accords — signed by Israel on one hand and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan on the other — as “a big success,” particularly in economic terms. “Even on the values side, in terms of tolerance, it’s been a big success,” he said.
Despite Israel’s far-right government potentially complicating the accords’ success, Gargash stressed that “on a strategic level, we’ll continue regardless of the government of the day.”
Gargash concluded by addressing talk of rifts between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. While he acknowledged that there is “a certain natural economic competition,” he called reports of Saudi-UAE conflict “extremely, extremely exaggerated,” adding that the two countries have cooperated in many sectors.