Space, human rights to boost $25 billion UAE-US bilateral trade: Envoy

UAE helped create about 120,000 jobs in the United States.

The US-UAE Strategic Dialogue, new opportunities brought by the current health situation and peace accords in the region will help grow bilateral economic and trade relations exponentially, according to a top US diplomat.

John Rakolta Jr., the US Ambassador to the UAE, told Wam, that he is optimistic that the current $25 billion annual bilateral trade between the US and UAE will grow to four to five percent in the future, without specifying the timeframe.

The ambassador has also explained that space and human rights will get special attention and boost within the new bilateral strategic initiative, the US-UAE Strategic Dialogue.

Opportunities brought by the current pandemic "I think Covid-19 brings all kinds of new opportunities for us to advance the growth, not only for our bilateral relationships, which is very strong as we already trade about $25 billion a year, [but across the region also]," he said in an exclusive interview at his residence in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

The UAE, through its investments, has helped create about 120,000 jobs in the United States, Rakolta pointed out.

"And what Covid-19 has done is to allow us to advance more quickly the need to grow the markets, not only between the two of us, but here overall in the Middle East," he said.

"And I think that this blends in perfectly with the Abrahamic Accords, which is really offering a look forward to peace, prosperity for not only the citizens of Israel and the UAE, but also citizens of the greater Middle East. The potential here is enormous."

Annual trade Asked about whether there are any particular targets to achieve in the bilateral economic and trade relations, the ambassador said, "The normal growth rate in the world is about two percent in good times or two to three percent. If we could get four or five percent growth rate, we would be doing very, very well. It will create a lot of new jobs and incomes would go up. People would see the benefits of not only the Strategic Dialogue [between the UAE and US], but the peace accords also," he explained.

"And this is the whole intention to bring a better life for everybody," the envoy stressed.

Asked whether he is optimistic about achieving four to five percent growth in the US-UAE bilateral trade, Rakolta said, "Yes, I think we have just an incredible moment in history right now, that is going to allow us to advance this in a much, much better way and to distribute this wealth much more broadly across the region, so that everybody has this kind of opportunity."

He added, "We have to stop looking back. We have to reject violence and look forward to peace and prosperity."

US-UAE Strategic Dialogue The US-UAE Strategic Dialogue, which was launched on Tuesday, recognises the strength of a bilateral relationship that has developed over the last 50 years, the ambassador said.

"We are strategically aligned in many, many areas ... broadly partners in defence and intelligence sharing, in counterterrorism, culture, the economy, trade, investment, space, human rights. The list goes on and on and so on," he explained.

The Strategic Dialogue also appreciates that "we already are really good partners and we want to continue to advance our relationship, our friendship, our partnership for decades to come, not just for one year or two years, but for many, many, many years."

As Wam reported, the United Arab Emirates, led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the United States, led by Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, on Tuesday committed to further develop bilateral ties and solidify the close partnership between the two countries through a new strategic dialogue initiative.

The initiative, which is led by senior government officials from both countries, provides a framework to discuss cooperation in eight areas: political partnership; security cooperation; law enforcement and border security; intelligence and counterterrorism; human rights; economic, energy, and commercial partnership; cultural and academic exchanges; and space partnership.

Space and human rights

Talking about cooperation with the UAE in space, the ambassador said, "Our partnership with space is only a few years old. And space represents a real adventure for mankind. There will be the commercialisation of space and you need partners that are technologically advanced, that have strong education systems, lots of engineers and interest in society."