United Arab Emirates and South Korea: Non-Traditional Partners

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the UAE and South Korea in various fields, which received a new impetus for development in the second decade of this century, under the influence of the need of the Arab state of the Gulf to implement its strategic economic tasks. Last years the UAE became a country, which aims to deeply transform its economic structures and become a high developed industrial nation with economy based on innovations and new technologies. To achieve this goal the UAE should develop relations with new partners, which obtain high technological level and experience in rapid transformation of its economy like the Republic of Korea – one of the world’s most highly industrialized nations. Last years the UAE intensified their foreign policy. Their geopolitical interests were not connected only with the Middle East as in previous period or traditional partners like the USA and some European states, but they included Eastern and Southern Asia, Africa and Eastern Mediterranean. The contacts with South Korea were a part of new foreign strategy of the UAE. The author analyzes the development of political contacts between the two countries, which were established in the previous period, but then were activated. He also traces the dynamics of relations development in the field of culture, which created the necessary basis for the intensification of cooperation in the economic sphere. The article shows the growth of trade relations and in the volume of investments that the UAE directs to the development of renewable energy production. The author pays special attention to cooperation between the UAE and South Korea in the field of nuclear energy, which has become an indicator of the success achieved by these countries in establishing strategic partnerships.