2026-09-07
UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan begins a state visit to Germany on Wednesday 9 September 2026, where he will meet Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported on 7 September. The official Berlin programme published by the Federal President’s office is set for Thursday 10 September: a welcome with military honours and talks at Villa Borsig at 10:00, and a state banquet at 19:30. The UAE side released the economic balance of the partnership ahead of the trip: bilateral trade exceeded EUR 13.56 billion in 2025, German imports from the UAE rose by more than 50% in the same year, the UAE is Germany’s most important economic partner in the Arabian Gulf, and around 2,000 German companies use the UAE as a hub for the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In the twelve months before the visit, XRG completed its EUR 14.7 billion partnership with Covestro, Emirates Global Aluminium announced a USD 170 million expansion in Germany and AD Ports Group agreed to buy MBS Logistics for AED 300 million.
What is on the programme of the state visit
According to WAM, the President will begin the state visit to the Federal Republic of Germany on Wednesday 9 September and will hold talks with President Steinmeier and Chancellor Merz “to discuss the strong and enduring ties between the two countries and explore opportunities to deepen cooperation, particularly in the economic and development sectors”. The discussions take place within the framework of the strategic partnership that the two countries declared in 2004; diplomatic relations were established in 1972, so the visit falls in the 54th year of formal ties. Regional and international developments are also on the agenda.
The Federal President’s published schedule gives the timing of the official part in Berlin. On Thursday 10 September 2026 at 10:00, Sheikh Mohamed is welcomed with military honours at Villa Borsig, followed by talks; at 19:30 Federal President Steinmeier and Elke Büdenbender host a state banquet in honour of the UAE President at the Federal President’s official residence. A state visit is the highest protocol format in Germany, and the banquet with speeches is its formal centrepiece.
The visit returns one made in the other direction seven months earlier. Chancellor Merz travelled to the Gulf on 4-6 February 2026, visiting Saudi Arabia, Qatar and, on 6 February, the UAE, where he met the President in Abu Dhabi. The Federal Government’s account of that trip lists foreign trade cooperation and a possible free trade agreement, investment in both directions and the regional situation among the topics, and the Chancellor also visited the Abu Dhabi subsidiary of Bauer AG and ADNOC. In July 2026 Badr Jafar, the Special Envoy of the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy, and Ambassador Ahmed Alattar held more than 15 senior-level meetings in Düsseldorf and Munich with Covestro, Wilo, Henkel, RWE, SEFE, Knorr-Bremse, TKMS, Airbus Defence and Space, BMW Group, Nemetschek and other companies; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted at the time that “the UAE and European Union continue to advance discussions toward a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement”.
UAE-Germany trade in numbers
| Indicator | Figure | Source and period |
|---|---|---|
| Bilateral trade | More than EUR 13.56 billion | WAM and UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2025 |
| German imports from the UAE | Up more than 50% | WAM, 2025 against 2024 |
| Non-oil bilateral trade | USD 15.51 billion, up 14.15% from USD 13.59 billion in 2024 | The National, 2025 |
| UAE exports and re-exports to Germany | Exports up more than 50%, re-exports up more than 17% | The National, 2025 |
| German companies in the UAE | Around 2,000 | WAM and UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2026 |
| Members of the German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce (AHK) | More than 500 companies | WAM; council established in 2009 |
| Germany-UAE Business Council | Launched in Berlin with more than 150 business leaders | WAM, July 2025 |
Two points stand out in the table. First, the growth in 2025 came on the German import side: purchases from the UAE grew by more than half in a year, which WAM attributes to the shift of the relationship “from trade towards strategic investments and long-term industrial partnerships”. Second, the German corporate presence in the UAE is now counted in thousands, not hundreds, and those companies use the country as a regional base rather than as a single market; the same pattern appears in the Abu Dhabi non-oil trade figures for the first half of 2026, where re-exports carry a large share of the growth. For the wider European picture, the UAE is also finalising a GCC trade agreement with the United Kingdom and negotiating a CEPA with the European Union, alongside the CEPA network it has built with African partners.
UAE investment in Germany: Covestro, EGA Leichtmetall, MBS Logistics and Baltic Eagle
The largest single transaction is XRG’s acquisition of Covestro, the Leverkusen-based producer of polymer materials. XRG, the international investment company of ADNOC, signed the investment agreement on 1 October 2024 and completed the transaction on 10 December 2025. The deal is valued at EUR 14.7 billion, comprising a public offer of around EUR 11.7 billion for the shares and around EUR 3 billion of assumed debt, and it included a EUR 1.17 billion capital increase that Covestro completed in December 2025. Covestro records the completion of the strategic partnership as a key milestone of its 2025 financial year. It is one of the deals that lifted the UAE’s share of regional transaction value in 2026, a trend covered in our note on GCC mergers and acquisitions in the first half of 2026.
In December 2025 Emirates Global Aluminium announced an expansion of EGA Leichtmetall, its recycling business near Hannover, with an investment of approximately USD 170 million. The new plant will increase recycling capacity more than six-fold, adding 110,000 tonnes a year of scrap sorting and 153,000 tonnes a year of melting and casting capacity, with first hot metal expected in 2028.
On 18 May 2026 AD Ports Group signed an agreement to acquire MBS Logistics, a Germany-based freight forwarder, at an enterprise value of AED 300 million (about EUR 70 million). The deal covers 100% of the core business excluding joint ventures; MBS Logistics reported revenue of AED 870 million in 2025, has close to 40 years of operating history, 26 offices and more than 450 staff, and gives the group an entry point into Central European multimodal corridors. Completion is subject to EU regulatory approvals and is expected in the second half of 2026. The acquisition follows a record second quarter for AD Ports Group and fits the strategy described in our overview of the UAE as a multimodal logistics hub in 2026.
In clean energy, Masdar holds 49% of Baltic Eagle, a 476 MW offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea developed with Iberdrola, which keeps 51% and operates the asset; the project, valued at around EUR 1.6 billion, was fully energised in July 2025. WAM adds that Masdar and its German partners are exploring battery energy storage systems in Germany as well as offshore wind and green hydrogen projects.
Energy: LNG contracts, hydrogen and the Emirati-German Energy Partnership
The two governments launched the Emirati-German Energy Partnership in 2017 and expanded it in 2022 to include climate action. The UAE hosted the 10th High-Level Steering Group meeting of the partnership in January 2026, where the sides set the priorities for the year; the working areas listed by WAM are hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, renewable energy, power grid connectivity, industrial decarbonisation and energy storage.
Gas supply is the most tangible part of the energy relationship. On 10 July 2025 ADNOC Gas signed a three-year agreement with SEFE Securing Energy for Europe for 0.7 million tonnes of LNG, valued at about USD 400 million (AED 1.5 billion), with deliveries from the Das Island plant starting in summer 2025. In February 2026 ADNOC and RWE Supply and Trading announced a strategic collaboration agreement to explore LNG supply to Germany and other European markets of up to 1 million tonnes a year for up to 10 years.
Technology, cybersecurity, vocational training and flights
In May 2026 the UAE Cyber Security Council and Siemens signed a memorandum of understanding on cybersecurity for critical infrastructure and industrial sectors, including plans for a Joint Innovation Centre of Excellence dedicated to operational technology cybersecurity. A UAE delegation visited Germany in June 2025 to work on biotechnology, emerging and advanced technologies and innovation, and The National, reporting on the visit on 7 September 2026, placed artificial intelligence and energy investment at the centre of the economic agenda.
Education is part of the same infrastructure for business. German schools operate in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, the Goethe-Institut has been in Abu Dhabi since 2006, and in May 2026 the German Emirati Vocational Institute (GEVI) opened in Sharjah with a dual vocational model that combines classroom study with practical training. Its first programmes, Automotive Mechatronics and Automotive Sales, lead to qualifications recognised in Germany and equivalent to a Level 4 diploma in the UAE.
Air links are expanding on both sides. On 9 June 2026, at the ILA Berlin Air Show, Emirates said it was ready to launch daily Boeing 777-300ER services to Berlin Brandenburg and Stuttgart, committing more than EUR 100 million a year in operating expenditure, subject to approval by the German Federal Ministry of Transport; the routes would connect the two cities through Dubai to 50 destinations not served by German airlines. Air Arabia already flies daily from Sharjah to Munich and will add daily Sharjah-Frankfurt flights from 15 December 2026 and daily Sharjah-Düsseldorf flights from 16 December 2026.
What the visit means for business in the UAE
A state visit does not change the rules of doing business by itself, but the figures published around it describe the market a company enters when it works between the UAE and Germany. The practical points to check:
- German companies choosing the UAE as a regional base. Around 2,000 have already done so, and the choice between a mainland licence and a free zone company depends on where the customers are: a mainland company can trade directly across the UAE and hold government contracts, while a free zone entity suits regional distribution, services and holding structures. Our company setup service covers the choice of jurisdiction, licensed activities and the registration itself.
- UAE companies entering Germany. The UAE is not a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so corporate and personal documents issued in the UAE for use in Germany go through consular legalisation, and German documents for use in the UAE follow the reverse route through the UAE mission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Timelines for a German subsidiary, a bank account or a work permit should start from the legalisation of documents, not from the filing date.
- Banking in euros. Trade with German counterparties runs in EUR, and UAE banks ask for contracts, invoices and a clear description of the supply chain before opening and while operating a corporate account; a corporate account opened with the right documentation avoids delays on the first incoming payment.
- Staff. German specialists relocating to the UAE need work visas and residence permits issued through the employer’s licensing authority; for technical roles the GEVI programmes in Sharjah add a locally trained pool with German-recognised qualifications.
- Logistics. The MBS Logistics acquisition, the Baltic and North Sea corridors and the new Air Arabia and Emirates routes widen the options for moving goods and people between the two countries; importers should compare sea, air and rail-sea combinations rather than default to one mode.
- Outcomes of the visit. The sides have announced talks in the economic and development sectors; memoranda signed on 9-10 September and any progress on the UAE-EU CEPA will be published by WAM and the Federal Government, and we will cover them in a separate article.
The sources do not publish the composition of the delegation, the list of agreements to be signed or a breakdown of the trade figures by product group.
How Atlant Capital can help
Atlant Capital sets up companies in Dubai and across the UAE for German and European businesses that use the country as a base for the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and for UAE companies that trade with Germany. We select the jurisdiction and licensed activities for the actual business model, whether a mainland licence for direct trade and contracts or a free zone company for regional distribution and holding purposes, prepare the corporate documents and their legalisation for use in Germany and the UAE, open the corporate bank account and obtain work visas and residence permits for owners and staff. Accounting, audit, VAT and corporate tax filing are provided by licensed accounting firms from our partner network.
Conclusion
The state visit of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed to Germany on 9-10 September 2026 takes place on the strongest economic base the two countries have recorded: bilateral trade above EUR 13.56 billion in 2025, German imports from the UAE up more than 50% in a year, around 2,000 German companies operating from the UAE, and UAE investment in Germany that now includes the EUR 14.7 billion Covestro transaction, a USD 170 million aluminium recycling plant, the AED 300 million MBS Logistics purchase and a 476 MW offshore wind farm. The talks in Berlin cover the economic and development sectors, energy, technology and the regional situation; for companies working between the two markets, the practical agenda remains the same: the right licence, legalised documents, a working bank account and visas for staff.
FAQ
When does the UAE President visit Germany and whom does he meet?
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan begins the state visit on Wednesday 9 September 2026 and meets Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Friedrich Merz. The Federal President’s published programme for Thursday 10 September includes a welcome with military honours and talks at Villa Borsig at 10:00 and a state banquet in honour of the UAE President at 19:30.
How large is trade between the UAE and Germany?
Bilateral trade exceeded EUR 13.56 billion in 2025, and German imports from the UAE rose by more than 50% in that year, according to WAM and the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The UAE is Germany’s most important economic partner in the Arabian Gulf. The National, citing non-oil trade data, puts non-oil bilateral trade at USD 15.51 billion in 2025, 14.15% more than the USD 13.59 billion of 2024.
How many German companies operate in the UAE?
Around 2,000 German companies have offices in the UAE and use the country as a regional hub for the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The German Emirati Joint Council for Industry and Commerce (AHK), established in 2009, has more than 500 German and Emirati member companies, and the Germany-UAE Business Council was launched in Berlin in July 2025 with more than 150 business leaders.
What are the largest UAE investments in Germany?
XRG, ADNOC’s international investment company, completed its EUR 14.7 billion acquisition of the polymer producer Covestro on 10 December 2025. Emirates Global Aluminium is investing about USD 170 million to expand EGA Leichtmetall near Hannover, with first metal in 2028. AD Ports Group agreed in May 2026 to buy MBS Logistics at an enterprise value of AED 300 million, with completion expected in the second half of 2026, and Masdar holds 49% of the 476 MW Baltic Eagle offshore wind farm, which was fully energised in July 2025.
