DMCC chair on sanctions against Russia, trade tensions, and the attractiveness of Dubai as a trade hub

It’s another quiet day for UAE in the news, except for a Financial Times interview with Dubai Multi Commodities Centre Chairman Hamad Buamim discussing the current global landscape of trade amid geopolitical tensions, the attractiveness of the UAE to Russian and global firms, and what he said was the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Russia.

“Sanctions slow the economy, never stop it. Trade continues flowing, it just flows in a different way,” Buamim said, adding that trade traffic has been redirected to Dubai, owing to its neutral location amid geopolitical tensions, alongside infrastructure and market access.

He also refuted claims that Russian firms came to the UAE to escape sanctions, explaining that “it is not the Russians that really dominated the growth. We had growth coming from Switzerland. We have companies from other countries. They see that Dubai has the infrastructure, the market access and the neutral stance [on the war].”

Buamim also touched on the difficulty of maintaining a neutral position between the US and China amid escalating trade tensions, calling it a “challenge for businesses throughout the world.”