Flowing Beyond Borders: How Water Cooperation Can Chart a New Course for Diplomacy
By H.E. Abdulla Balalaa, UAE Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainability
In diplomacy, we often talk about what divides us. Water reminds us of what we share.
Over the past year in the run-up to the 2026 UN Water Conference, my conversations with international stakeholders – from policymakers to diplomats, and business leaders to civil society – often return to the same essential question: how do we secure a more prosperous, stable, and resilient future in a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected, yet often struggles to act collectively?
Whether we are discussing food systems, the energy transformation, climate mitigation, economic development, or technological innovation, water seems to be the invisible yet critical thread underpinning every conversation. It is the foundation beneath all sectors and all opportunities, connecting national priorities in ways that are impossible to ignore.
While this recognition of the shared nature of water is a vital first step, it is not the same as acting on it.
I often feel that challenging times also present the biggest opportunities for collaboration, to bring stakeholders from across the spectrum together to create a new roadmap forward.
There is a tendency to think of international cooperation as something that becomes possible only when countries agree on the broader questions of the day. In reality, progress often begins somewhere more specific: with a shared challenge, a common interest, and a willingness to work together.
Water offers a compelling example of the nuances of expectation versus reality. Every country depends on water, although each experiences water insecurity differently. Those differences can create unique opportunities for countries to learn from one another, combine their capabilities, and develop solutions that would be harder to achieve independently.
No single institution holds all of the expertise, technology, nor capital. No country can innovate its way to water resilience in isolation. The question is not whether countries will pursue their own interests; it is whether we can build partnerships that make pursuing those interests together more valuable than pursuing them alone.
Ultimately, cooperation on water can create relationships between governments, connect researchers and industries, encourage investment, and establish channels of engagement that endure beyond individual projects and political cycles. Trust can be built through the experience of working together and delivering results.
For me, this is an important part of what water diplomacy can offer the international community. It is a way to make cooperation tangible, demonstrate its value, and build the foundations for further collaboration.
The close partnership between the UAE and China on water is one example of this in action. Our two countries have different geographies, development experiences, and water systems. Yet we share a common interest in strengthening water resilience, accelerating innovation, and ensuring that technologies can meet the needs of our communities.
The UAE – China bilateral relationship allows us to understand what each side brings, where our priorities align, and how we can create value together. Through our collaboration on water, we are demonstrating how countries can pursue both individual and broader interests through multilateral cooperation, rather than treating them as competing objectives.
China brings substantial scientific, industrial, and technological capabilities. The UAE has significant experience in water innovation amidst our harsh, arid environment. By bringing our unique yet complementary strengths together, we can create opportunities to not only accelerate our collective progress but also contribute unique solutions to wider global challenges.
The value of this becomes even more clear when we move from principle to practice.
The completion of the landmark Taweelah Independent Water Plant (IWP) demonstrates what can happen when countries, companies, and innovators bring complementary expertise together around a shared challenge. Based in Abu Dhabi and built by POWERCHINA under an engineering, procurement and construction model, the facility has become the world's largest reverse-osmosis seawater desalination plant, producing around 900,000 cubic metres of water per day and meeting water needs from millions of households across the city.
For the UAE, desalination is fundamental to our water resilience; however, securing our water resources for the future goes far beyond just producing it. This means improving efficiency, reducing the energy required, and developing and integrating Responsible AI and technologies that make water systems more sustainable, efficient, and resilient. The construction of the IWP is emblematic of how collaboration between entities across the UAE and China can transform a challenge into an opportunity, while creating positive impact and serving community needs.
Scientific partnerships are another vital dimension. In May 2025, the Mohamed bin Zayed Water Initiative signed a memorandum of understanding with China’s Institute of Seawater Desalination and Multipurpose Utilization, part of China’s Ministry of Natural Resources. The partnership aims to advance desalination innovation through joint research and training.
These examples matter because they show what international cooperation can achieve when it connects shared bilateral priorities with scientific expertise, commercial capability, and implementation.
They also illustrate why the most effective partnerships lie in the capabilities they help develop, the institutional relationships they establish, and the opportunities they create for further collaboration.
International cooperation is often judged by the agreements that countries sign or the positions they reach in multilateral negotiations. These remain important. However, cooperation must also be assessed in terms of what it enables governments, institutions, and people to do together, such as creating economic opportunities and improving access to reliable water and energy.
Successful partnerships can strengthen national resilience and expand access to solutions.
Water infrastructure, technology, finance, and resources all have strategic significance. Cooperation must therefore be grounded in mutual respect, clear shared objectives, and a recognition that partnerships work best when the benefits are understood and shared.
This is where water diplomacy becomes a powerful instrument: bringing countries together around shared interests, forging practical partnerships, and delivering solutions that strengthen water resilience across borders.
This December, the 2026 UN Water Conference will offer a pivotal opportunity to turn the growing momentum behind water cooperation into concrete action – bringing political ambition, practical solutions, and the partnerships needed to accelerate global progress together.
Diplomacy teaches us a fundamental lesson. No country, institution, or sector can solve shared challenges alone. Governments must create the conditions for progress, but delivering it at scale requires businesses, financial institutions, researchers, civil society, and youth to work together, combining their expertise and resources to turn shared ambition into lasting impact.
The real test is whether we can translate that cooperation into results by aligning expertise, mobilizing investment, and building partnerships that will continue to deliver long after Abu Dhabi. Success will be measured by the decisions taken, the investments mobilized, and the solutions brought to scale.
The UAE–China partnership illustrates what is possible when countries turn shared priorities into shared progress – bringing together different experiences, expertise, and capabilities to advance a common priority, with the potential to drive meaningful, global impact.
As we prepare to welcome the international community to Abu Dhabi, we have an opportunity to demonstrate what purposeful cooperation can achieve when countries come together around a challenge that affects us all.
In diplomacy, we will not always agree. Nor should we expect every shared challenge to erase our differences. But we can choose where to cooperate, recognize where our interests converge, and prove that collective action can achieve what no country could accomplish alone.
Water gives us that common ground, and an opportunity to show the world what we can achieve when we work together.
