Visits and growing co-operation highlight depth of US-UAE ties
The US has shown the importance of its relationship with the UAE in the past few months.
Secretary of Defence James Mattis, National Security Adviser John Bolton as well as Brian Hook and Zalmay Khalilzad, US special envoys for Iran and Afghanistan respectively, have visited the UAE for talks on Iran, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan.
The visits and growing co-operation in trade and security highlight the depth and complexity of the relationship between the two countries, experts say.
Barbara Leaf, who retired as ambassador to the UAE this year, said the visits were a “testimony to the importance this administration places on the relationship, and the continuing importance of the UAE as a diplomatic partner not just in issues related to the Middle East but beyond”.
Ms Leaf, now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, commented on the UAE’s influence.
“It is the degree to which the UAE cultivates strategic relationships with great regional and global powers that, among other factors, has given it outsize weight diplomatically and economically, in reaching out to India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa,” she said.
The growth of ties between the US and UAE has not been without obstacles. “The Qatar dispute and increasingly Yemen are considerable challenges for the US-UAE relationship,” Ms Leaf said.
With the US Senate voting to block America’s role in Yemen, there has been increased pressure from Washington to end the conflict.
Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have cut relations with Qatar over its support for terrorism, but Ms Leaf said the US was concerned that this was distracting the region from the fight against extremism and Iran’s interference.
But she personally does not see such differences as out of the ordinary.
“Sovereign countries even when they’re close have their independent views and quite often disagree,” Ms Leaf said.
Washington is also keeping an eye on the growing ties between the UAE and China.
After the state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping in the summer, and with trade expected to rise to $58 billion (Dh213bn) this year, US officials are speaking more publicly about Beijing’s rising influence in the Middle East.
Ms Leaf said that during her years as ambassador, “we could see a rising dimension to the commercial ties between UAE and China” but warned that the real concern would be “in increasing military-defence dimension”.
The Trump administration has nominated John Rakolta, a business executive, as next ambassador to the UAE.
Undersecretary of state David Hale warned in a speech at the Middle East Institute: “China is seeking to expand its influence in the region through investment, trade and infrastructure deals.”
“As we have seen elsewhere Chinese trade and investment comes with strings and it can produce a debt trap to create long-term dependencies,” Mr Hale said.
But analysts who follow security relations between the US and the UAE find them unshakeable.
Nicholas Heras, a senior fellow at the Centre for New American Security, described the UAE as “one of the most important security partners for the US in the greater Middle East region”.
The ties are underpinned by the Emirates’ ability to project power across the region at a time when “US defence policy is moving in the direction of a smaller American military presence in the Middle East, and a larger reliance on capable regional partners to conduct their own operations with limited US support”, Mr Heras said.
“The UAE is by far the only regional security partner that can conduct its own operations and has the ability to work in joint operations with the US military.”
He said this was shown in Yemen, where the US had joint operations with the UAE against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which helped to recapture Mukalla and other areas in Hadramawt province, and in Shabwa and Abyan provinces.
Abu Dhabi hosted peace talks on Afghanistan, attended by Mr Khalilzad and representatives from the Taliban, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Afghan government’s High Peace Council.
Kamran Bokhari, a national security and foreign policy specialist with the University of Ottawa, said the UAE’s influence in Afghanistan came from the regional and internal dynamics of the war.
Mr Bokhari said the UAE could help Washington to pressure Pakistan as the US tried to end the Afghan war.
The growing US-UAE relations could bring increased diplomatic traffic and security co-ordination, as Washington tries to reshuffle its priorities and presence in the region while Abu Dhabi expands its role and influence.
The ties are underpinned by the Emirates’ ability to project power across the region