The United Arab Emirates, represented by the UAE Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of the UAE, participated in G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors and Deputies meetings in Cape Town under South Africa’s 2025 G20 Presidency, and also joined the first BRICS Finance and Central Bank Deputies meeting under Brazil’s BRICS Presidency. The discussions covered South Africa’s Finance Track priorities, including disaster resilience, debt sustainability for low-income countries, mobilising finance for a just energy transition, and the role of critical minerals, alongside broader workstreams such as macroeconomic cooperation, international financial architecture, infrastructure, tax cooperation, health-finance cooperation, financial sector issues, financial inclusion and sustainable finance. At the G20 ministerial meeting (26 to 27 February), Minister of State for Financial Affairs Mohamed Hadi Al Hussaini highlighted fiscal sustainability constraints affecting emerging markets and developing economies amid high global debt levels, economic fragmentation and inflation uncertainty, and pointed to G20 work on multilateral development bank strengthening and debt sustainability measures including knowledge-sharing on capital flows. The UAE also emphasised building investable infrastructure pipelines aligned with national growth objectives, use of blended finance and de-risking instruments, strengthening global trade corridors, and advancing inclusive international tax cooperation supported by domestic resource mobilisation and capacity building toward Sustainable Development Goals. The Deputies meeting (24 to 25 February) further raised challenges for low- and middle-income countries such as weak investment environments, infrastructure gaps, high debt and elevated capital costs, and advocated multilateral cooperation to boost private-sector participation, alongside greater use of technology and data monitoring for sustainable development; on the sidelines, Al Hussaini met Germany’s Federal Minister of Finance Dr. Jörg Kukies to explore further fiscal cooperation within the G20 process, while the UAE also welcomed BRICS priorities with an increased focus on the sustainable finance agenda.

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