President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are set to welcome United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed to the White House on Monday against a backdrop of violence in Gaza, civil war in Sudan and developments in artificial intelligence.
The meeting will be the first visit to the United States by a UAE president since the country was founded in 1971. Biden and Harris are scheduled to meet separately with Sheikh Mohammed.
The UAE has helped evacuate seriously injured and sick residents from the Gaza Strip and is seen as a key partner in rebuilding the Palestinian territories after the war between Israel and Hamas. It said last week it would refuse to support post-war reconstruction efforts in Gaza without a clear plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“The UAE is not prepared to support a day after war in Gaza without the establishment of a Palestinian state,” UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan wrote on social media last week.
But the White House has come under pressure from U.S. lawmakers in recent months to scrutinize the UAE on several issues. On Friday, five Democratic lawmakers published an open letter urging the Biden administration to raise concerns about the country’s covert support for Sudanese paramilitary groups.
The UAE has been providing battlefield intelligence to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and flying sophisticated military drones to escort arms shipments to fighters in Sudan, The New York Times reported last week. Meanwhile, the UAE has positioned itself as a champion of peace and international aid to victims of the conflict, where famine was officially declared last month after nearly 18 months of fighting that has left tens of thousands dead and created the world’s worst displacement crisis.
In their letter, the Democratic lawmakers praised Biden for pushing to end the crisis, but also wrote, “We are concerned that the UAE’s actions in Sudan run counter to these actions and to President Biden’s stated goals of an end to violence and freedom, peace, and justice for the Sudanese people.”
In a statement last week, Biden said emergency response forces “must stop attacks that are causing disproportionate harm to Sudanese civilians.” His spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, said last week that Biden had discussed the crisis in Sudan with the president of the United Arab Emirates and that all countries “must intensify efforts to open humanitarian routes and ultimately secure a ceasefire.”
The UAE is expecting talks on Sudan’s latest regional developments, while Sheikh Mohammed is expected to focus on ways the two countries can cooperate.
Speaking to Abu Dhabi-based United Arab Emirates newspaper The National, Anwar Gargash, foreign affairs adviser to the UAE president, stressed that the visit signaled the UAE’s desire to “rebuild ties with the US over the next decade.”
“Sometimes people like to talk about tensions between the two countries, but the important thing is that, come good or bad weather, this is our most important strategic relationship,” Gargash told The National.
The UAE is also looking to develop a partnership with the United States beyond its traditional Gulf oil trade in exchange for security pacts with the U.S. Both countries are looking at emerging artificial intelligence.
Sheikh Mohammed’s brother and national security adviser, Sheikh Thanoon bin Zayed, heads G42, the Middle East’s largest artificial intelligence company. He visited Washington in June and met with Biden administration national security officials and former President Barack Obama. The company has contracts with prominent U.S. technology companies, including Dell, Microsoft and OpenAI.
But it also drew scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers.
The bipartisan House Select Committee on China has asked the Commerce Department to investigate whether trade restrictions should be imposed because of the company’s ties to China, as U.S. officials worry the United Arab Emirates company could be a conduit for transferring U.S. technology to Chinese companies.