Trump gives UAE’s Sheikh Tahnoon warm White House welcome

U.S. President Donald Trump gave a warm reception to UAE power broker Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed at the White House with dinner and a broad review of business and strategic ties between the two allies.

Sheikh Tahnoon, who is the UAE’s National Security Advisor, Chairman of its biggest sovereign wealth fund and brother to President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, led an Emirati delegation on Tuesday that dined with Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other top administration officials.

Accompanied by Mubadala CEO Khaldoon Al Mubarak, ADNOC CEO and UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, and UAE Ambassador to the U.S. Yousef Al Otaiba, Sheikh Tahnoon also met with cabinet members including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“Tonight, in the White House, I warmly welcomed UAE National Security Adviser H.H. Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan to meetings and a dinner with many notable, senior U.S. officials,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social media platform. “The evening demonstrated the long-standing ties and bonds of friendship between our countries.”

Sheikh Tahnoon said in a post on X that the talks focused on the UAE’s “long-term strategic partnership” with the U.S., as well as strengthening economic ties “by accelerating investments in artificial intelligence, advanced technology, infrastructure, energy and health care.”

During his U.S. visit, Sheikh Tahnoon also planned to meet some of the country’s top tech leaders, including Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Palantir’s Alex Karp, Semafor reported.

While the Emirati delegation was at the White House, the government in Abu Dhabi announced the signing of an agreement with Microsoft and UAE tech company Core42 to improve the efficiency of digital services.