Five years, with rapid growth recorded in bilateral investments and trade. The world’s largest container operator, China’s COSCO Shipping Limited, has chosenKhalifa Port as the base of its Middle East operations. The UAE has fully backed China’s Belt and Road Initiative, setting up projects like the DubaiTraders Market, the Yiwu Market UAE, and the China-UAE Industrial Capacity Cooperation DemonstrationZone with the involvement of Chinese capital and firms.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an important stakeholder in China’s trade and commercial linkages with the Middle East, in particular, the Arab Gulf region.
The UAE has supported China’s ambitions along the Belt and Road (BRI) as well as other foreign policy goals like improving South-South cooperation, that is, technical cooperation among developing countries and the Global South in the field of resources and technology. Meanwhile, bilateral trade is strong, with Chinese exports to the UAE showing immense growth. This in turn has fostered an environment where partnerships with Chinese firms can grow in high-potential sectors like energy, infrastructure, and financial technology (FinTech).