Armenia–United Arab Emirates relations

When Armenia first regained independence in 1991, nonetheless Armenia was involved in the bloody First Nagorno-Karabakh War, thus the two countries had no formal relations, as the United Arab Emirates was leaned to Azerbaijan at the time, a stance which was confirmed in 2018 by the United Arab Emirates on its discussion with Azerbaijani government that Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan.[1] Nonetheless, the United Arab Emirates and Armenia still managed to establish official diplomatic relations.

In recent years, due to growing Turkish imperialism initiated by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, relations between two nations greatly improved. The United Arab Emirates have been hostile to Turkish ambitions and have clashed for influences over Syria, Sudan and Libya; while Armenia's relationship with Turkey has been poor due to Armenian Genocide dispute.[2] During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the United Arab Emirates and its ally Saudi Arabia secretly supported Armenia against Azerbaijan.[3]

Earlier, the United Arab Emirates leaders, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, congratulated Armenia for gaining independence from the Soviet Union on 21 September 2020.[4]

Increasing tensions between the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have also prompted the United Arab Emirates to seek closer tie with Armenia, resulting in an official statement in April 2019 by the United Arab Emirates that it would slowly begin to recognize the Armenian Genocide.[5] Emirate of Abu Dhabi had become the first emirate to recognize the genocide in April 2019.[6]