The United Arab Emirates is quietly urging the European Union to start talks on a trade pact separate from an Arab bloc, five people familiar with the matter said, as the Gulf state seeks closer political and economic ties with Europe.
They told Reuters that Abu Dhabi is frustrated at long-stalled trade negotiations between the EU and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an Arab bloc that includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
The UAE, an influential, oil-rich Middle East state, has long advocated deeper EU involvement in the Gulf region. It is the Arab world’s second-largest economy after Saudi Arabia, a major Middle East trade partner for many other nations, and its sovereign wealth funds rank among the world’s most active.
A UAE official denied Abu Dhabi had proposed bilateral talks with the EU, calling this “baseless and unfounded”. Such a move might strain relations with the UAE’s GCC partners.
Three of the sources said the UAE had not yet submitted a formal request to the EU and it was unclear whether the GCC was aware Abu Dhabi had sought to initiate a bilateral process.
Officially, the UAE continued to support the GCC-EU process, they said, although it was privately pushing for its talks.
However, the sources said UAE officials regularly raised the idea of a bilateral trade process in meetings with counterparts from the EU and its 27 member states, including in recent weeks.