Public diplomacy has a growing role to play as traditional political channels recede, UAE Minister of State Noura Al Kaabi said at the Arab Media Summit 2026 in Dubai on Tuesday, speaking during a Government Communication Forum session on media and diplomacy.
Al Kaabi said the UAE’s international relationships rest on tolerance, openness, respect for different religions and cultures, and shared interests, a direction she attributed to the leadership’s guiding vision. Successful diplomacy, she argued, should bring viewpoints closer, reduce differences and create new opportunities for cooperation rather than simply maintaining formal state-to-state ties.
She welcomed the recent improvement in UAE-Syria relations and cited Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s visit to the UAE as a positive development. Al Kaabi also praised an initiative by Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, Mother of the Nation, to restore the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, saying it would help preserve the memory of the Syrian people and protect Arab cultural heritage.
On the UAE’s soft power, Al Kaabi said building a credible national narrative requires consistency and coordination across government, backed by international partnerships. She pointed to Expo 2020 Dubai as evidence of the country’s capacity to draw people and cultures around a common purpose.
Al Kaabi also raised the spread of misinformation on digital platforms as a threat requiring active engagement, rapid response and sustained credibility. She called on young people specifically to verify information, challenge misleading content and use their platforms to strengthen the UAE’s connections with the world.
She closed with a note of caution: openness and stronger international ties must be matched by responsibility, and the security of the country and society remains, in her words, a priority on which there can be no compromise.
