This deal is set to draw more investments from the UAE’s sovereign wealth funds into sectors such as energy, digital economy, electric vehicles, and semiconductors. They began discussing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement last year.

Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul, in a Reuters interview at a WTO event in Abu Dhabi, mentioned that negotiations are in their final stage. The UAE, already engaged in bilateral trade agreements with various countries, including India and Israel, has witnessed its Mubadala Investment Co. invest in Malaysia.

Minister Zafrul sees the agreement positioning Malaysia as a key destination for UAE’s Asian investments but expressed that a wider ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council trade agreement has made no headway.

Talks are ongoing with the EU for a free trade deal; however, optimism is tempered regarding a US-led Indo-Pacific agreement, especially with the potential return of Donald Trump, who previously withdrew the US from a Pacific trade pact.