ABU DHABI- 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 own 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.
Emirati officials had brought up the matter in almost every meeting across many levels, said the sources, who asked for anonymity to discuss the matter as the details are not public.
The EU prefers a deal with the GCC, which includes Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain, but some EU states have voiced support for a UAE deal given the lack of GCC progress, the sources said.
Failing any significant momentum by the summer, the EU could consider a bilateral process with the UAE, they said.
The UAE official said the GCC and EU had recently met to agree on a timeline for technical discussions.
“The UAE supports open, rules-based trade, and will always prioritize working through the GCC to support our collective regional and international trade ambitions,” the official said.
