Trump’s Gulf visit looms over new EU-UAE trade talks as president teases ‘very big’ announcement

I shared more comments with Tala Michel Issa for Arabian Business on Trump’s coming visit to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar and the potential impact on the momentum for EU-UAE trade talks.

As POTUS has been teasing “one of the most important announcements that have been made in many years”, I commented that “It remains to be seen whether what Trump manages to negotiate with those three GCC economies could dampen the region’s willingness to move forward with diversification of trade partners”.

As the UAE attempts to navigate economic relationships on both sides of the geopolitical divide, I warned that “Nobody should underestimate the ability that Washington still has to put pressure on economies to slow down their diversification efforts”.

Faced with mounting pressure to remain aligned, I commented that “Economic blocs like Europe need to move extremely fast, because the GCC economies are under tremendous pressure not to go down that road too aggressively.”

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Nicolas Michelon

Nicolas is a corporate geoeconomics and strategic & business intelligence expert with 25 years of experience in the Asia-Pacific, and more recently in the Gulf and Türkiye. A Managing Partner at Alagan Partners, he advises corporate executives on how to navigate the current geopolitical and geoeconomic environment, mitigate risk and develop prospective scenarios. He is also an Adjunct Professor & Guest Lecturer in geopolitics, geoeconomics and business intelligence at ESCP Business School (France), Galatasaray University (Türkiye), University Mohammed VI Polytechnic (Morocco), and Ecole de Guerre Economique (Paris School of Economic Warfare).