The UAE government has a sound and active foreign policy that was established by President Sheikh Zayed. The UAE foreign relations are created on the basis of diplomacy, negotiations and consideration.
The United Arab Emirates, as a member of the Arab union that is geographically located in the Middle East, is considerate to its neighbors and plays a significant role in matters concerning the International community as a whole in the region (US Department of State, 2011).
In order to fulfill its regional as well as international role, it has to ensure that regional, political and economic security as well as respect of human dignity is maintained. Thus, to ensure that this is achieved, its foreign policy is tailored to the principles of partnerships through the dialogue and consensus locally and at international levels.
Due to its economic and political stability, the UAE has a very influential role in Arab affairs in the Middle East. In order to achieve its diplomatic objectives, “one of the central features of the UAE’s foreign policy has been the development of closer ties with its neighbors in the Arabian Peninsula through the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)” (UAE, nd).
Literature Review
The UAE and Afghanistan relations have been greatly influenced by the UAE foreign policy, thus there exists bilateral relations between the two countries. In addition, due to Afghanistan’s security situation, the UAE has a military presence in the country in line with its policy of maintaining regional security and human dignity. Since 2006, UAE has played a more direct role in Afghanistan through its embassy in Kabul (Katzman, 2011).
It also provides humanitarian relief to Afghanistan’s population by setting up hospitals, schools and religious centers all aimed at promoting human dignity (IPS, 2011). Due to the similarity of cultures and religion, the relations between these two countries have been fairly good as the local populations appeared to adapt easily to the UAE foreign policies.
Nevertheless, the issue whether the foreign relations between the two countries have been strengthened or not lies in the constant discussions and dialogues, thereby ensuring that any activities they deal with do not meet any resistance.
During the frequent dialogue between the two countries, they usually take into consideration how to enhance the mutual co-operation between their countries through commerce and other core factors vital to their bilateral and foreign policy framework (Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, 2011). For example, the recent bilateral trade negations called for development of Afghanistan’s transport infrastructure and aviation industry in order to increase trade and relationships between the two countries.
It is also vital to note that the diplomatic relations between the two states have existed for the last two decades whereby the UAE under the guidance of its foreign policy has provided grants and expertise to Afghanistan to assist in social-economic development of the Afghans. In addition, the Afghans have been always welcomed in the UAE where they have enjoyed easier travel rules across the UAE.
Despite the various changes of regime in Afghanistan, the UAE always maintained diplomatic relations with all the Afghanistan’s political classes and the Taliban because as it continued supporting the Taliban government both politically and economically. Thus, when other International agencies and countries cut diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime and called for sanctions against Afghanistan, the UAE continued trading with it (UAE Interact, 2011).
Nevertheless, with increasing terrorism activities, there was a wide call for sanctions against Afghanistan which resulted in deterioration of relations between these two countries (Anon, 2006).
Due to the current security situation in Afghanistan, the UAE central and core issue in the region is to stabilize security situation in the region which has affected both the economical and humanitarian spheres in Afghanistan. Thus, through co-operation and negotiations with other countries, the UAE has contributed 1.5 billion to enhance security and create institutions that maintain security and stability in the country (Hellyer, nd).
Methodology
Based on the research topic, the researcher applied secondary sources of information as the main form of information for the research. The researcher used his discretion which enabled him to go through large volumes of relevant data both primary and secondary and subsequently select the most appropriate data from published sources which came from books and official websites.
The primary data was collected using interviews and questionnaires. The researcher conducted interviews, via phone and issued online surveys. This enabled the researcher to get first hand information from the sources which is, the perspective of the subjects involved and scholars themselves regarding the subject.
Interviews are an effective way of collecting information since they first establish a close relationship between the interviewer and the interviewees. Through interviews, it is also easy to make follow up when looking for finer details of any interesting piece of information.
Researcher used 50 questionnaires distributed evenly across the study group involved. Due to the large amount of information collected by both interviews and questionnaire data collection methods, they enabled one to conclusively determine the implications of the UAE- Afghanistan relations in the region and what the region could do to increase their diplomatic and economic relations.
In order to ensure that the interviews and questionnaires are evenly distributed, the researcher used sampling method whereby the researcher randomly picked from a group of interested interviewees who were used in the data collection process. The countries and population from which the samples were taken from include UAE and Afghanistan.
Two types of interviews were used. First type is structured interviews whereby the questionnaire was given out to the respondents to fill out their opinions. The other type is an in-depth interview, which does not involve any rigid questions to be answered. The study used the structured interviews to get answers for some specific questions in order to get uniform results from several respondents.
In-depth guided interviews on the other hand gave the respondents a chance to answer questions freely and hold discussions. For the sake of collecting ample information, the research conducted individual interviews several times via the telephone.
The choice of qualitative data collection as the methodology to be used was backed by the fact that qualitative research has the capacity of providing detailed information regarding the way a group of people experiences an issue that is being researched. This type of methodology presents the human part of an issue such as the beliefs, opinions or even the expectations of different people.
The methodology fits in well with the aim of the research in identifying the impacts the UAE- Afghanistan in the region. Such closeness with the respondents in collecting information can only be achieved by using qualitative methods such interviews.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the relations between the two countries are very solid despite the war on the terrorism focused on the Taliban in Afghanistan. The UAE and Afghanistan have their embassies in each other capital cities, and the later has both an embassy and consulate in the UAE.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union and after the War on Taliban, the UAE was on the front line in the reconstruction of the country. These reconstruction efforts centered on the UAE’s foreign policy of maintaining economical and social security for its neighbors in the Arab league. Thus, in order to achieve this, the UAE has offered economical assistance through economical aid and grants aimed at improving the life of the Afghans destroyed by the war.
References
Title of Article: United Arab Emirates yearbook. New York, NY: Trident Press Ltd.
Author: Anon, T.
Bibliographical entry: Anon, T. (2006). United Arab Emirates yearbook. New York, NY: Trident Press Ltd.
Summary: In this study, the author describes the humanitarian assistance and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan have often been interrupted by violence and instability that characterize Afghanistan. Criminal and insurgent forces have continued to threaten the peace and tranquility Afghanistan.
Title of Article: Encyclopedia of the Nations. (2003). United Arab Emirates – Foreign policy. Nations’ Encyclopedia. Retrieved from
Bibliographical entry: Encyclopedia of the Nations. (2003). United Arab Emirates – Foreign policy. Nations’ Encyclopedia. Web.
Title of Article: The Evolution of UAE Foreign Policy.
Author: Hellyer, P.
Bibliographical entry: The Evolution of UAE Foreign Policy. The UAE Interact. Web.
Summary: In this study, the author says that there is basically no hidden interest in the favorable policy of UAE towards Afghanistan. This is because, what UAE is doing is primarily within its foreign policy objectives, which include: feeling of identification within the Muslim community, which entails providing development aid and assistance to fellow Muslims.
Title of article: UAE-Afghanistan: Extradition treaty signed
Author: IPS.
Bibliographical entry: IPS. (2011). UAE-Afghanistan: Extradition treaty signed. IPS Agency. Web.
Summary: This article touches on the signing of treaties, UAE and Afghanistan signed an extradition treaty with two other agreements namely: mutual legal assistance in matters of criminality and assistance, and cooperation on civil matters. The treaties were signed by the minister of Justice of the UAE and the minister for foreign affairs of Afghanistan. The signing of the bilateral treaty was motivated by the desire of the UAE to foster its bilateral, regional and international cooperation on legal and judicial areas.
Title of Article: The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy
Author: Katzman, K.
Bibliographical entry: Katzman, K. (2011). The United Arab Emirates (UAE): Issues for U.S. Policy. Federation of American Scientists. Web.
Summary: In this study, the author is saying that since the collapse of the Taliban government, the UAE has pledged US$ 323 million worth of economic aid to Afghanistan. The UAE has also funded projects like the Zayed University which provides education to approximately 6,000 students of Afghanistan and various drinking wells and mosques.
Title of Article: UAE takes action to help promote Afghan investment.
Author: Shaheen, K.
Bibliographical entry: Shaheen, K. (2010). UAE takes action to help promote Afghan investment. The National. Web.
Summary: In this study, the author shows how the UAE has also taken action in promoting investment in the Afghanistan region. The establishment of the Afghanistan International Investment Friends was an initiative founded with the objective to promote and to advise the Afghanistan authorities on better laws and policies that can help spur investment to enhance the stabilization of the war-ravaged country.
Title of Article: Foreign Policy.
Author: UAE Embassy
Bibliographical entry: UAE Embassy. (2009). Foreign Policy. UAE Embassy. Web.
Summary: This article is shows how the UAE has positively and immensely contributed to the international efforts of stabilizing Afghanistan and supporting the efforts to have a peaceful Afghanistan. From 2002 to 2008, the UAE has provided humanitarian and development aid to Afghanistan worth US$ 550 million making it the only Arab country to provide the most humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
Title of Article: Government-Political system.
Author: UAE Interact
Bibliographical entry: UAE Interact. (2011). Government-Political system. UAE Interact. UAE Interact. (2011). Web.
Summary: This article explains how the UAE has contributed non-combatant troops to Afghanistan as part of its promotion of international security assistance force. This makes it one of the two main Islamic countries with troops in Afghanistan apart for NATO. The government of UAE supports the transitional efforts to increase responsibility to Afghan authorities.