Look at the chief economic and strategic spots across Africa \u2014 ports for key trade corridors, mines that produce critical minerals, large renewable energy projects \u2014 and you will find the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the United States and, to a lesser extent, China reduce their investment, aid and presence on the African continent, the Emirates is using its enormous wealth and influence to fill the void.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Persian Gulf investments in Africa, primarily by the Emirates, have exploded in recent years. Since 2019, $110 billion worth of deals \u2014 mostly by firms tightly aligned with the ruling powers \u2014 have been announced, dwarfing amounts pledged by any other country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe U.A.E. is turning into a dominant foreign player\u201d in much of Africa, said Anna Jacobs, a nonresident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its efforts to become a world leader, particularly in finance and technology, are likely to be bolstered under President Trump, Ms. Jacobs said. The president, seeking to draw Emirati money to the United States, paved the way this week for the sale of American advanced artificial intelligence chips to the Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Emirates\u2019 wide-ranging investments and efforts to become a world leader in\u00a0A.I.\u00a0are part of an ambitious plan to increase the country\u2019s influence, particularly over global supply chains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like other oil-producing nations in the Persian Gulf, the Emirates is looking to diversify its economy away from fossil fuels, and it sees Africa as an essential part of the plan. The continent has vast mineral resources, a growing population, agricultural potential and a strategically important location bordering the Red and Mediterranean Seas as well as the Indian and Atlantic Oceans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Powerhouse Emirati corporations based in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with political connections are in dozens of countries across Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AMEA Power\u00a0is already building or operating clean energy plants in Burkina Faso, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia and Uganda and has\u00a0plans\u00a0to\u00a0expand. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company has projects in Morocco, Senegal and South Africa and is participating in a project to invest\u00a0$10 billion\u00a0in renewable energy in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
DP World, the gargantuan government-backed ports and logistics operator, has\u00a0invested billions of dollars\u00a0in ports and economic free zones from Algeria to Zambia, including in the Berbera port city in the breakaway republic of\u00a0Somaliland, where the Emirates also has a military base. Last summer it announced that it would spend another\u00a0$3 billion\u00a0on African ports over the next three to five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, the Emirati International Holding Company invested more than $1 billion for a 51 percent share in the\u00a0Mopani Copper Mines\u00a0in Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Spending in Egypt has also soared. Last year, the Emirates agreed to\u00a0invest $35 billion\u00a0to develop a new city and tourism destination on Egypt\u2019s Mediterranean coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Emirati investment in Africa has ramped up as China\u2019s has tapered off. Once the biggest foreign investor on the continent through its Belt and Road Initiative, China still has a large presence, but Beijing has pulled back in recent years after a series of debt crises in Africa and economic problems at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022 and 2023, the Emirates announced a total of $97 billion in\u00a0investments\u00a0in Africa \u2014\u00a0three times\u00a0China\u2019s total, according to\u00a0fDi Markets, a database of foreign investments. U.S. investment in 2023 was about $10 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts said that even though not all of these pledges would pan out, they showed an overall commitment to doing business on the continent. The Emirates is also looking to build trade and has signed bilateral\u00a0economic partnership pacts\u00a0with three African nations, including\u00a0Kenya, since the year\u2019s start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Emirates has focused its investments on \u201ckey future-focused sectors such as renewable energy, food security, digital transformation, infrastructure, and logistics over the past five years,\u201d said a spokesperson for the Emirati ministry of foreign affairs. In addition, the country\u2019s total foreign assistance in Africa exceeded $1 billion in 2023-24, according to a government spokesperson on trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has fast-tracked America\u2019s exit from Africa, ending billions of dollars in funding, dismantling the\u00a0U.S. Agency for International Development\u00a0and\u00a0ending\u00a0all contributions to the African Development Bank. The State Department\u2019s\u00a0reorganization plan\u00a0also calls for the elimination of most operations in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Britain\u00a0has also tightened its flow of money into the continent in recent years as it has increased aid to Ukraine and increased its own military spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Trump administration\u2019s actions are extreme, said Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, a co-director of a program on\u00a0African governance\u00a0at Oxford University, but they reflect a larger global trend away from development aid and liberal values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The world is transitioning to an era in which the focus on democracy and free markets is becoming less significant, Mr. Soares de Oliveira said. \u201cA more business-focused approach is going to be the shared norm,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That isn\u2019t to say the Emirates does not have substantial strategic and political interests in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe U.A.E. has revolutionized statecraft for a small country,\u201d Mr. Krieg said. It has fewer than one million citizens, is smaller than the state of Indiana and has a relatively tiny military. Yet, he said, \u201cit\u2019s very much playing the game of a middle power.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some of the Emirates\u2019 political choices have stirred concerns. Sudan\u2019s government has accused the Emirates of fueling genocide with its backing of the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group engaged in a\u00a0civil war\u00a0that has killed 150,000 and displaced 14 million people. Recently, Sudan\u2019s military\u00a0cut diplomatic ties\u00a0with the Emirates, which has said it has provided only humanitarian assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Emirates has also been accused of funneling money to the Russian mercenary group Wagner in both Sudan and Libya.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere is no such thing as clean or dirty money in the U.A.E.,\u201d Mr. Krieg said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ken Opalo, an associate professor at Georgetown University\u2019s School of Foreign Service, said the Emirates aimed to be the world\u2019s gateway to Africa for investment and trade, whether legal or smuggled. The gold trade alone that passes mostly through Dubai is worth $30 billion, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cThe U.A.E. has developed a robust regulatory framework that ensures that the trade in gold is conducted with the maximum security, integrity and transparency,\u201d an Emirati official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Mr. Trump\u2019s visit to the gulf region this week illustrates, Washington considers the Emirates a reliable ally in the region and in Africa. The two countries have maintained close security ties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Washington may underestimate just how valuable the commercial partnership between the Emirates and China is. Ambitious investments in green energy in Africa rely on Chinese technology, minerals and goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe U.A.E. ultimately militarily relies on the U.S., but it also wants to position itself as the Switzerland of the gulf where everyone is welcome,\u201d Mr. Opalo said. \u201cThey want to be a renewables hub, and it\u2019s hard to play that game without engaging China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Look at the chief economic and strategic spots across Africa \u2014 ports for key trade corridors, mines that produce critical minerals, large renewable energy projects \u2014 and you will find the United Arab Emirates. As the United States and, to a lesser extent, China reduce their investment, aid and presence on the African continent, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,16],"tags":[7,249,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-40494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"category-news","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-news"},"yoast_head":"\n