The United Arab Emirates has not been affected by Europe's financial crisis thanks to the Gulf state's "small" exposure to the eurozone, its economic minister said Monday.
"Our exposure is small" to the European economy, said Sultan bin Saeed al-Mansoori, adding the UAE has "a team capable of handling the situation in case any problems occur."
Speaking on the sidelines of the Summit on the Global Agenda 2011, hosted by oil-rich Abu Dhabi, Mansoori said his country was "optimistic that the Europeans will manage to overcome this crisis."
Meanwhile, former British prime minister Gordon Brown told the conference that cooperation was "even more necessary today because we are facing... an unavoidable global downturn."
At a hotly anticipated summit in Berlin on Sunday, French President Nicholas Sarkozy vowed "lasting, global and quick responses before the end of the month" to the euro crisis, but did not specify concrete actions to be taken.
Europe must "arrive at the G20 united and with the problems resolved", he said, referring to a November 3 and 4 meeting of the world's advanced and emerging economies in the French resort of Cannes which the UAE said it will attend for the first time.
When asked whether or not the UAE would offer Greece financial support to alleviate its massive debt crisis, Mansoori said: "No, we won't."
"That is within the framework of the European Union and not the UAE," he added.
Separately, the minister said he remains confident growth in the UAE would hit 3.5 percent in 2011, but added he "cannot predict anything with the current situation in the world."
Eight-hundred members of the World Economic Forum’s Network of Global Agenda Councils are meeting in Abu Dhabi on Monday and Tuesday.
The Network comprises 79 councils of 15-20 experts each, focusing on topics such as food security, climate change, financial stability and geopolitical risk.
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