His Excellency Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropic Affairs, has concluded an official working visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, during which he held a number of meetings with senior business leaders and institutional representatives in the cities of Düsseldorf and Munich. He was accompanied throughout the visit by His Excellency Ahmed Al Attar, the UAE's Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.
The visit came within the framework of efforts to strengthen UAE-German relations and expand cooperation across priority sectors, including industry, energy, advanced manufacturing, water technologies, mobility, digital infrastructure, space, sport, culture, and innovation.
The visit also highlighted the growing role of the private sector in supporting practical partnerships between the two countries and translating them into tangible initiatives.
The UAE is Germany's most important economic partner in the Arabian Gulf region. Bilateral trade in 2025 exceeded 13.56 billion euros, while Germany's imports from the UAE rose by more than 50% during the same year, reflecting continued momentum in mutual trade flows.
It is worth noting that the UAE market is home to around 2,000 German companies that use the country as a regional hub to serve markets across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
The visit also comes at a time when the UAE and the European Union continue to make progress in talks aimed at reaching a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, contributing to the consolidation of trade and investment cooperation and enhanced collaboration in strategic sectors. Trade cooperation is a fundamental pillar of UAE-EU economic relations, given Germany's position and role as Europe's largest economy and one of the UAE's most important European partners.
During the visit, H.E. Badr Jafar held more than 15 bilateral meetings with chief executives and senior officials from a number of leading German companies and institutions. Discussions focused on opportunities to expand trade and investment, deepen industrial cooperation, strengthen innovation partnerships, and identify practical areas for collaboration between UAE partners and German institutions at both the regional and global levels.
The meetings included sessions with senior officials from companies and institutions including: Covestro, the Wilo Group, Henkel, RWE, SEFE Energy, the German Football Association, NRW.Global Business, Knorr-Bremse, TKMS, the Deutsches Museum, Airbus Defence and Space, the BMW Group, Allplan, Nemetschek, and a number of other entities.
Meetings with industrial and manufacturing companies addressed opportunities to expand cooperation in sustainable materials, industrial integration, advanced manufacturing, processing industries, and enhanced access to regional markets. The two sides also discussed ways to enable German companies with a presence in the UAE to expand their activities in trade, manufacturing, research and development, and partnership-building from the UAE as a base.
Energy sector meetings focused on energy security, supply diversification, clean energy, battery energy storage, low-carbon fuels, hydrogen, and carbon management. These discussions reflected the importance of UAE-German cooperation in supporting more resilient, diversified, and future-ready energy systems.
Water technologies and sustainable infrastructure also formed a key focus of the talks, with discussions covering opportunities to enhance cooperation in water resource management, smart logistics, AI-driven innovation, and the UAE's role in deploying and applying advanced water technologies.
The visit highlighted opportunities for cooperation in mobility and transport safety, railway technologies, digital construction, space systems, secure communications, and Earth observation, alongside cultural and knowledge cooperation. Discussions also addressed ways to strengthen partnerships in youth development and sport, including growing cooperation between football institutions.
In this context, H.E. Jafar said the visit reflects the depth and development of UAE-German relations and affirms the importance of the private sector's role in translating strategic partnerships into practical cooperation that delivers tangible results.
He added: