The UAE plays a significant role in the Middle East and is a valued partner for the United States with the two countries looking to benefit from robust bilateral cooperation across various issues.
These areas entail talks around regional and international peace including Gaza and Sudan, Ukraine and Russia, relationship with China, artificial intelligence (AI), technology transfer, space exploration, and achieving global climate goals among other matters.
Danny Sebright, President of the US-UAE Business Council opened up about the priorities of the agenda during an exclusive interview to Khaleej Times ahead of President Sheikh Mohamed’s historic visit to Washington on Monday.
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He said: “The UAE has always been a close partner to the United States, first in the political and diplomatic areas, then in military intelligence and security and in the last 15 to 20 years, in business and trade. This business and trade and commerce relationship has just ‘exploded’. This is a huge focus between the two countries right now.”
Sebright, who has been involved in Middle East peace efforts since the 1980s and was part of former US President Bill Clinton’s team during those discussions, added:
“At the moment, economic, trade, digital, and AI, all of these things are really essential. The US looks to the UAE for its leadership on climate change. It looks to the UAE for its leadership on north, south, east, and west. All of these things come back to good business, good trade and investments. If we build those bridges, some of the other things that we want to achieve on geopolitics will follow.”
History will be made
Notably, history will be created on Monday with the first visit by a sitting UAE president to the White House. This will also be the inaugural meeting of the UAE and US presidents on American soil since the establishment of the Emirates.
“Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan went (to the US), but he went to Cleveland, Ohio for medical care. Former President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan never went. Sheikh Mohamed came as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, but he never came as the president,” added Sebright.
In 2008, Sheikh Mohamed engaged in discussions with then US President George W. Bush at Camp David, Maryland. Additionally, Sheikh Mohamed met with Biden at a summit in Jeddah two months after assuming the presidency of the UAE in May 2022. They also held talks during the G20 summit in New Delhi in 2023.
“But this is the first time a president of the UAE will visit the White House and have a meeting with the US President Joe Biden there. He’s also going to meet with the Vice President, Kamala Harris (running for presidency).”
Priorities of the visit
Shedding light on the priorities of the visit, Sebright, who has already flown to the US for this significant occasion, said: “So, a very important aspect is to give an official statement to this ‘wonderful tech relationship’ that has developed over the last two years…AI, digital and all of these things. This will be a big focus of the visit.”
Referring to the Microsoft’s enhanced partnership and investment in G42, based in Abu Dhabi that aims to provide advanced AI solutions to public sector clients around the globe, Sebright added:
“The deals that Microsoft and others have signed and working forward between the US and the UAE and the tech and the AI relationship (will be on the list). Then pushing forward on the AI, specifically, some of the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) issues, transfer and sale of technology, making it clear that these are the areas that the US and the UAE want to focus on in the future and ensuring that everybody understands that the US and the UAE governments have discussed and agreed to this.”
Close bilateral space cooperation to grow
Sebright also emphasised that a significant area of interest would be ‘space exploration’, particularly the collaboration between NASA and the UAE Space Agency.
“Going forward, we will have more UAE astronauts getting trained at the Johnson Space Centre. The NASA-UAE Space Agency, NASA-Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center (MBRSC) collaborations, are only going to grow. They’re going to grow not only with the astronauts themselves, but they’re going to grow with real research and development, with the teams working together to create new projects.”
International collaboration in energy technology
He also pointed out that the discussions would include energy, emphasising not only traditional oil and gas but also renewable and nuclear energy.
“Everything to do with renewable energy, nuclear energy, not just oil and gas, but green energy (will be on the agenda). The things that Masdar are doing in solar and wind…there’ll be a lot of discussion on these topics,” added Sebright.
‘Take the risk for peace’
He reiterated another important talking point on the agenda is that the two global leaders will engage in talks focused on improving regional stability and reducing tensions.
Their dialogue will likely focus on collaborative strategies to address ongoing conflicts and foster a more peaceful environment in the region.
“On the regional, political or strategic (front) they’re obviously going to talk about Gaza and the relationship with Israel. They’re going to talk about Sudan. I expect that issues of Russia and Ukraine are going to come up. There will have to be something said about China, about the importance of having a relationship with China,” said Sebright.
He highlighted that the United States serves as a facilitator, uniting all parties to promote dialogue and teamwork.
“The US’ role is to build the table and create the room. We’re the convener. Our role is to get everybody in the room, brain storm for ideas and try to make people talk. However, we can never get someone to make a deal if they’re not ready to make a deal…it can’t happen.”
“But we still have the respect of anybody else on all sides of the table, to bring the people together and convene them. What we used to say back in the (Bill) Clinton years is help them ‘take the risks for peace’. Work with them to lower the things that they’re worried about the most and help them say, ‘I can sign my name to this and have a deal’, because the United States has always helped lower the risk in signing that deal.”