Unfreezing the Abraham Accords: A New Transatlanc Strategy for Greater Peace, Stability

12 Unfreezing the Abraham Accords: A New Transatlanc Strategy for Greater Peace, Stability and Integraon in the Middle East Refocusing the UK’s Strategy Towards the Arabian Gulf The UK has strong diplomac es across the Gulf, along with growing trade links and the presence of significant military assets in the region. [...] While the increasing assertiveness of China both in the East and South China Seas merits the UK’s focus on the region, it is essential for the UK to increase its military presence to protect trade routes with the GCC which is in a geopolitically unstable area – as recent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea have demonstrated. [...] This can enable the UK to assist the US to overcome any hurdles of interoperability among GCC states’ defence systems.37 Again, this will require the UK to increase its military expenditure and expand its presence to complement the US’s security architecture in the region and contribute to reinvigorating the Abraham Accords.38 The ties that already exist demonstrate the potential for the UK to bui. [...] The Biden Administraon has diplomacally promoted both the Negev Forum, between Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the UAE and the US, and also the I2U2 forum in October 2021, between India, Israel, the UAE and the US, which is meant to create business collaboraons.99 While the Trump Administraon established the Abraham Fund, which was meant to invest in relevant projects, this was not adopted by the. [...] The UAE also expects the agreement to increase its GDP by 0.4% by 2030,101 while the Rand Corporation projects that over the next 10 years, trade between Israel and the UAE in diamonds, industrial goods and services is expected to create a 0.8% increase in the UAE’s GDP.102 In the first 10 months of 2023, bilateral trade between Israel and the UAE had increased by 25% (US$2.56 billion), compared t.