LONDON: A senior British politician has appreciated the UAE for its role in “wisely moulding peace and stability” in the Middle East and the region.
Tobias Ellwood, a former government minister and head of the UK Defence Select Committee, stated that Britain requires to work closely with the UAE, calling it a “loyal ally” and “a commendable member of the UN Security Council.”
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he underscored the UAE’s “quiet leadership” in a region where “diplomatic momentum was not up to the mark.
He maintained that changing priorities among major powers in the world means the United States risked causing a “vacuum” in the region as it withdraws further from its role over there.
Ellwood said that UAE was doing its best to tame that vacuum with responsibility, engaging in a “mature” approach to politics since it signed the Abraham Accords in 2020, normalizing relations with Israel, playing a “long game” by “working for good neighbourliness and consensus.”
The former MP noted how the UAE has played to improve trade with Israel, recalling a recent deal to reduce 96 percent of all tariffs between the two countries and how it was working to promote religious tolerance, highlighting the recent opening of the Abrahamic House religious center in Abu Dhabi earlier this year.
He appreciated the UAE’s commitment to humanitarian work in the region while donating agreeable aid and persuading the Syrian government to cooperate in alleviating suffering by opening humanitarian corridors after the recent earthquake hit Syria and the neighbouring Turkiye earlier this year.
“Those bold moves changed the dynamic in the region,” he said. “And so, last month, after years of cold relations, the UAE struck a trade deal with Turkiye that could double trade to $40 billion in the coming five years.”
As well as improving relations with Turkiye and Israel, Ellwood also highlighted the efforts of UAE to seek a peaceful path forward with Iran.
UAE’s Role for Peace in the Middle East and Region
He further noted that differences almost prevailed, but even so, the Emiratis extended a cautious welcome while inviting the Iranian president to visit the UAE, which would be the first since 2007.
“The UAE managed to opt for a constructive engagement towards its traditional foes and rivals, including Iran, Qatar, Turkey and Israel”, he noted.
Ellwood wrote about the UAE’s significant role in tackling climate change through its capacity as host of the COP28 Summit later this year and its deal with Washington worth $100 billion to pursue clean energy sources worth “100 gigawatts globally by 2035.”
Meanwhile, UAE has managed to have significant progress in relation with the UK as the former is cultivating hundreds of millions into UK life science investments, Ellwood said.
He also mentioned today’s meeting of the foreign ministers of both sides to review the progress of the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP) to review millions of investments in key innovation-led sectors, including healthcare, technology, infrastructure, clean and renewable energy and life sciences.
