From 9-12 January, 32 members of parliament from 15 NATO member countries visited Abu Dhabi to discuss the broad geopolitical situation in the Gulf, the foreign and defence policy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and to participate in a Joint Meeting of the UAE’s Federal National Council (FNC) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). They also attended IRENA’s third annual Legislators Forum. The visit was facilitated by the FNC, IRENA and the Danish Embassy and its Ambassador Merete Juhl (Denmark is currently the NATO Contact Point Embassy). The delegation consisted of members from the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Sub-Committee on Technology Trends and Security (STCTTS) and the Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group (GSM). The group had the occasion to meet with UAE politicians; officials from the Ministries of Defence and of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, UAE; French and US military officers at the FNC’s premises. They also met with former diplomats, historians, political scientists and cyber security experts at New York University’s Abu Dhabi campus. The report is a summary of the key themes of the discussions.
