For the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this is central to how it approaches BRICS. Since becoming a full member in January 2024, its engagement has been guided by a straightforward principle: economic cooperation should create tangible opportunities for countries, businesses and people.
A diversity that creates opportunities
The strength of BRICS lies partly in its diversity. Its members bring different economic structures, resources, capabilities and development experiences — from major producers and consumers to sources of capital, investment destinations, energy exporters and manufacturing centres.These differences create opportunities for complementarity — connecting markets, capital, capabilities and ideas in ways that can benefit its members, and by extension the Global South.
The UAE’s participation in BRICS is part of its broader commitment to multilateralism, constructive dialogue and diversified international partnerships. It seeks to build bridges between economies and regions. It supports an open international system that advances peace, stability, sustainable development and shared prosperity.
For the UAE, BRICS’ ultimate value lies in implementation. Dialogue should translate into easier trade, stronger investment flows, more resilient supply chains, better connectivity and greater opportunities for businesses.
India’s 2026 BRICS Chairship, centered on resilience, innovation, cooperation and sustainability, provides a timely framework for this agenda. At a time when trade restrictions, supply-chain disruptions and uncertainty are increasing costs for businesses and consumers, the response should not be to retreat from global economic integration, but to make it more resilient and inclusive.
BRICS stands out when cooperation can produce tangible benefits: through strengthening the multilateral trading system, facilitating trade and investment, improving connectivity, supporting resilient global value chains, and promoting sustainable development.
Development finance is also part of this equation. The New Development Bank (NDB) has approved more than $40 billion in financing since its establishment, supporting infrastructure and sustainable development across its member countries. The UAE’s active engagement with the NDB long before joining BRICS reflects its wider commitment to mobilising capital towards productive investment and long-term growth.
The UAE’s own economic partnership with India demonstrates what practical connectivity can achieve.
On UAE-India ties, the UAE’s advantages
The UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has helped create a more enabling environment for trade and investment between two highly complementary economies. In 2025, non-oil bilateral trade grew by 17% to exceed $76 billion and the UAE and India have set the ambition of increasing bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032.But the strength of the UAE-India relationship extends beyond trade. It is reinforced by investment, innovation, education, tourism and long-standing connections between their businesses, institutions and people.
This experience points to a broader lesson for BRICS: the strongest economic partnerships are built not only through agreements between governments, but through lasting connections across societies — creating the trust, opportunity, and resilience that allow commercial ties to deepen over time.
Economic connectivity is strengthened when businesses, entrepreneurs, investors, and institutions develop greater familiarity with one another. It is reinforced through education, research, tourism, cultural exchange and engagement of younger generations, which help build the trust and networks on which longer-term economic relationships grow.
The opportunity for BRICS is therefore to deepen the quality of connectivity among its members — connecting not only economies but also institutions, ideas and people.
The UAE is particularly well positioned to contribute because connectivity lies at the heart of its own economic model.
Non-oil sectors accounted for almost 79% of GDP in 2025, supported by world-class infrastructure, trusted financial institutions, advanced logistics and energy capabilities, and an open investment environment that enables businesses to scale-upwards and outwards.
The UAE’s ports, airports and logistics networks connect markets across Asia, Africa, Europe and beyond. Its financial centres connect international capital with opportunities across the region, while, its universities, research institutions and innovation ecosystem connect talent, knowledge and ideas.
With sovereign wealth assets exceeding $2.9 trillion, and 38 concluded Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements, the UAE has built the capacity to connect capital, markets and economies at scale.
For the UAE, connectivity is not simply about moving goods from one market to another. It is about creating the conditions in which capital, knowledge, technology, talent and people can interact and create new opportunities.
The UAE’s approach is not to build economic cooperation around division, but around connectivity.
The path under India’s leadership
As India leads BRICS through 2026, there is an opportunity to move further toward delivery: building resilience without closing markets, supporting innovation while widening opportunity, and strengthening connections among the businesses, institutions and people of the UAE and India. The UAE also looks ahead with confidence to China’s BRICS Chairship in 2027, where it hopes to build on the momentum of India’s leadership and carry forward the same energy of openness, connectivity and practical cooperation.Ultimately, the success of BRICS cooperation will be measured by the opportunities it creates. That is the approach that the UAE brings to BRICS. As India hosts the 2026 Summit (September 12-13) , the UAE stands ready to continue the work that translates cooperation into ways that support shared prosperity.
Saeed bin Mubarak Al Hajeri is a Minister of State at the United Arab Emirates Ministry of Foreign Affairs