His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, may God protect him, has reaffirmed the country’s commitment to strengthening economic and development cooperation with African nations. The UAE remains focused on building sustainable partnerships that support shared growth and prosperity.<\/p>\n
His Highness made the remarks during talks with Romuald Wadagni, President of the Republic of Benin, who is on a working visit to the UAE.<\/p>\n
During the visit, the two leaders witnessed the exchange of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), along with the announcement of several memorandums of understanding and cooperation protocols covering key sectors. The agreements aim to strengthen bilateral relations and create broader opportunities for trade, investment, and development.<\/p>\n
His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, may God protect him, welcomed President Romuald Wadagni and expressed his desire to continue working together to strengthen relations between the UAE and Benin in ways that serve their shared interests and benefit the people of both countries.<\/p>\n
Their discussions focused on expanding economic, investment, and development cooperation, while exploring opportunities to make better use of the resources and capabilities available in both nations.<\/p>\n
The UAE President and his Beninese counterpart reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening bilateral relations and making the most of cooperation opportunities, particularly in the economy, renewable energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and food security. These sectors are closely linked to the development priorities of both countries.<\/p>\n
His Highness the UAE President emphasized the country’s interest in expanding development cooperation with African nations, including the Republic of Benin, in line with its established approach to building sustainable development partnerships that support progress and prosperity for all.<\/p>\n
This approach reflects the UAE’s continued efforts to strengthen relations with African countries and promote cooperation in sectors that contribute to economic diversification and sustainable development, with mutual interests at the center of these partnerships.<\/p>\n
His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, may God protect him, and Romuald Wadagni, President of the Republic of Benin, witnessed the exchange of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The agreement marks an important step in strengthening trade and investment relations and establishing a new phase of economic cooperation.<\/p>\n
His Highness the UAE President affirmed on the occasion that the agreement represents an important milestone in bilateral relations and reflects the UAE’s approach to continuing to build sustainable economic and development partnerships that benefit everyone.<\/p>\n
His Highness said it provides an important framework for expanding economic cooperation and advancing sustainable and inclusive development. He noted that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement will help create new opportunities for the business communities of both countries, strengthen economic resilience, and promote lasting economic prosperity for their peoples.<\/p>\n
For his part, the President of Benin welcomed the exchange of the agreement, highlighting its importance in advancing economic cooperation. He reaffirmed his country’s commitment to achieving the agreement’s objectives in support of mutual interests and sustainable development in both nations.<\/p>\n
The agreement was exchanged by His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, and Olushegun Adjadi Bakari, Benin’s Minister of Tourism and Foreign Trade, in charge of Industry and the Promotion of Private Investment.<\/p>\n
Once ratification procedures are completed and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement enters into force, it will reduce or eliminate customs duties on a wide range of traded goods and remove unnecessary barriers to trade, making it easier for products and services to enter both markets.<\/p>\n
The agreement is also designed to improve opportunities for companies and investors in the UAE and Benin, increase trade and investment flows, and strengthen supply chain resilience while creating new opportunities for their business communities.<\/p>\n
The agreement comes amid continued growth in trade relations between the UAE and Benin. Bilateral non-oil trade reached $2.15 billion in 2025, representing a 65% increase compared with 2024.<\/p>\n
Trade between the two countries has more than doubled since 2021, when it stood at $1.01 billion, reflecting the considerable growth in commercial exchanges over recent years.<\/p>\n
The positive trend continued during the first half of 2026, with non-oil trade reaching $1.29 billion, an increase of 37.4% year over year.<\/p>\n
His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Foreign Trade, said that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement signed between the UAE and the Republic of Benin will contribute to increasing UAE exports to Benin by more than $1 billion by 2033, while Benin’s exports to the UAE are expected to rise by more than $100 million by the same year, opening new opportunities for trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.<\/p>\n
His Excellency explained that the agreement includes high levels of trade liberalization, covering approximately 97% of existing trade between the two countries, along with a significant portion of customs tariffs. He emphasized that the agreement represents an important addition to joint efforts between the UAE and Benin, as well as cooperation between the UAE and the African continent, noting that work on the agreement had progressed at record speed in recent months.<\/p>\n
His Excellency also pointed out that Benin’s main exports to the UAE include cotton, certain types of nuts, soybeans, and a variety of food products. These goods have opportunities in the UAE market, as well as the potential to be re-exported through the country to international markets.<\/p>\n
Cooperation in renewable energy, agriculture, infrastructure, and food security featured prominently in discussions between His Highness the UAE President and the President of Benin, given the importance of these sectors to the development priorities of both countries.<\/p>\n
Expanding cooperation in these areas offers opportunities to develop joint projects, exchange expertise, and make use of available economic and investment capabilities, supporting sustainable growth and broadening the partnership between the UAE and Benin.<\/p>\n
The meeting also addressed the 2026 United Nations Water Conference, which the UAE is scheduled to host toward the end of the year, and the importance of strengthening international efforts to address challenges related to water resources.<\/p>\n
Both sides emphasized the significance of the conference in advancing international efforts to develop innovative solutions to water challenges, improve water management, and ensure the sustainability of water resources, which remain among the most important issues affecting development worldwide.<\/p>\n
His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, may God protect him, and the President of the Republic of Benin witnessed the announcement of several memorandums of understanding and cooperation protocols aimed at strengthening bilateral relations across various fields.<\/p>\n
The agreements included a memorandum of understanding on political consultations and another on establishing a joint committee for consular affairs, as well as an agreement between the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy and Benin’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<\/p>\n
They also included a letter of intent concerning data hosting and information systems, a memorandum of understanding on workforce cooperation, and a cooperation protocol covering domestic workers.<\/p>\n
Additional memorandums focused on exchanging government expertise and establishing a strategic investment partnership.<\/p>\n
Representing the UAE in the exchange of memorandums were Her Excellency Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation; His Excellency Mohammad Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs; His Excellency Dr. Abdulrahman Al Awar, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation; and His Excellency Mohamed bin Hassan Al Suwaidi, Minister of Investment.<\/p>\n
Several Beninese ministers and officials responsible for foreign affairs, economic matters, trade, and digital transformation took part in the exchange on behalf of the Republic of Benin.<\/p>\n
The meeting was also attended by His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Court for Special Affairs; His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Adviser to the UAE President; and several ministers and senior officials, along with the delegation accompanying the President of Benin.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The agreement marks an important step in strengthening trade and investment relations and establishing a new phase of economic cooperation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16400,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[13,255],"class_list":["post-16399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-stories","tag-mohammad-al-gergawi","tag-mohammed-bin-zayed"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16401,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16399\/revisions\/16401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}