Today's Edition
SAMIHAH ZAMAN (ABU DHABI)
Its capacity to foster dialogue and build trust among diverse parties makes the UAE a natural broker of global peace efforts, experts on diplomacy said in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
“The UAE’s peacebuilding authority in the international community has grown so much in recent years that I believe it can be leveraged to improve the overall situation in the Middle East… [In fact,] global forums of nations interested in justice should not take place in New York or Brussels but in Abu Dhabi,” Dr. Sergey Nikolaevich Baburin, President of the International Association of Peace Foundations, said at the 20th Aletihad Forum.
Dr. Baburin was a guest speaker at the forum, spotlighting the UAE’s global status as peacemaker at the forum’s opening session.
Pointing to the UAE’s success in facilitating prisoner exchanges amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, Dr. Baburin said the nation now has the potential to bring about lasting peace in the Middle East by leveraging its position as a trusted arbiter.
Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al Dhaheri, Deputy Director General at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy, highlighted the results-oriented nature of Emirati diplomacy, with a focus on “achieving tangible results that preserve human dignity and [providing] hope to communities exhausted by conflict”.
He said: “The UAE has not limited itself to appeals; it has acted, invested, and intervened positively whenever possible and necessary, proving that diplomacy can be an effective tool for relief, and that moderation is not weakness but wisdom."
While the UAE has played a pivotal role in mediating multiple international conflicts – for instance, between Eritrea and Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa, as well as between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and India and Pakistan - it has also played a leading role in the provision of humanitarian aid to communities ravaged by conflict.
Dr. Al Dhaheri said: “Today, we face a world of increasing conflicts and declining trust, yet the UAE has chosen to be a force of balance and reason — building rather than destroying, uniting rather than dividing, and planting hope in a time exhausted by divisions.
“In the Emirati context, peacebuilding is not merely the absence of war but the presence of development and coexistence, turning challenges into shared opportunities. This message derives its strength from the founders’ values, who made tolerance and human dignity part of the nation’s identity and political legacy.”
