German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stood before a state banquet in Berlin last week. He told his guest, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, “the world has become a more turbulent place; old certainties are crumbling.” The remark opened the first state visit by a president of the United Arab Emirates to Germany.
Missiles fired at Emirati soil and at shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in recent months gave Steinmeier’s words an edge no diplomat needed to spell out. Behind the widely reported €40 billion investment pledge for artificial intelligence and data centres lies a less publicised set of outcomes in defence, commerce, culture and education. These outcomes better explain Abu Dhabi’s wish to double its financial presence in Germany for years to come.
The two sides used the visit to launch a Strategic Dialogue, a standing format meant to steer the strategic partnership the countries signed in Berlin over two decades ago. Until recently the relationship rested on periodic royal visits and irregular ministerial gatherings, a workable arrangement with real limits. Berlin treats the partnership as central to its search for capital and security guarantees outside Washington and Beijing.
The new format covers international and regional security, defence, trade and investment, energy, advanced technology, culture and education. It gives officials on each side a fixed calendar to work from, after years of occasional handshakes.
Sheikh Mohamed portrayed the arrangement as a long-term commitment resting on five decades of cooperation. Chancellor Friedrich Merz called it the foundation for further growth.
Capital Follows Political Confidence
The standing dialogue quickly acquired financial substance. The €40 billion pledge announced during the visit adds to an existing €34 billion Emirati stake in Germany, and Bavaria alone will receive €10 billion of it.
Nearly a gigawatt of new data-centre capacity forms the largest strand within the package, alongside investment in industry, advanced technology and energy projects across the country.
German and Emirati companies added twenty-nine commercial agreements exceeding €9.35 billion. The two governments also established an Investment Council to keep the private sector engaged between state visits.
Berlin granted Emirates airline additional traffic rights for a Berlin-Dubai route, a modest gesture that irritated Lufthansa and hinted at how far Germany is prepared to bend commercial rules for the partner it courts openly.
Shared Security Worries Draw Them Closer
Capital rarely travels without a security rationale in the Gulf, a region unsettled by conflict and disrupted shipping lanes. The delegations signed a letter of intent on defence and security cooperation, alongside a separate accord on policing and an agreement on legal assistance in criminal cases.
Their joint declaration condemned recent attacks on the UAE and on commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, an unusually pointed line for Berlin, usually cautious about naming culprits directly.
Merz had already travelled to the Gulf in February seeking to cut reliance on American and Chinese suppliers. Abu Dhabi offers precisely the kind of dependable, well-financed counterpart such a project needs.
Culture and Education Cement the Bond
Diplomatic and commercial architecture rarely endures past the people who animate it, which is why the visit gave equal billing to softer ground.
Sheikh Mohamed met Emirati students studying at German universities and urged them to serve as bridges between the two societies.
A new memorandum on culture, literature, heritage and creative industries accompanied a literary exchange already under way, with the Sheikh Zayed Book Award honouring German translator Stefan Weidner this year.
Cultural contact between the two countries began well before formal diplomacy, tracing to a German explorer who photographed life in Abu Dhabi in 1904.
Why Abu Dhabi Wants More of Germany
Abu Dhabi’s appetite for German assets fits a wider practice of the UAE spreading its sovereign wealth across partners it judges politically durable. The same calculation appears in the UAE’s pursuit of a trade agreement with the EU, an ambition the Berlin declaration explicitly endorsed.
Concentrating capital in one bloc carries risk the UAE can ill afford amid Iranian attacks, American policy swings and a slowing Chinese economy. Germany offers industrial depth, research capacity and, eventually, the EU’s market of half a billion consumers once trade access becomes real.
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