London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Germany’s Scholz inks gas deal with United Arab Emirates

Germany’s Scholz inks gas deal with United Arab Emirates

During two-day trip to the Middle East, the chancellor balanced securing energy supplies and raising human rights concerns.

Olaf Scholz culminated a two-day trip to the Persian Gulf region by signing a gas deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Sunday, but the German chancellor's mission was overshadowed by human rights concerns.

Amid Russia's halt in gas deliveries to Germany and skyrocketing energy prices in Europe, Scholz traveled to the region to secure alternative supplies for his country's energy-hungry economy.

His trip came as France's TotalEnergies announced a big deal with Qatar on Saturday, under which the French energy giant will invest in the exploration of a new gas field for exports of liquified natural gas (LNG) and will take a 9.4 percent share of the project.

During a stopover in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi on Sunday morning, Scholz signed a contract for delivering 137,000 cubic meters of LNG, which is supposed to arrive in northern Germany at the end of this year, according to German energy provider RWE. The delivery will thus likely come in time to help Europe's largest economy to overcome a gas scarcity this winter and deal with the fallout of what Scholz has described as Russian energy "blackmail."

However, the LNG deal can only make up for a small part of the 56.3 billion cubic meters of gas that Germany received from Russia in 2020. German energy providers have been seeking to replace the Russian gas with last-minute purchases on the world market, but those come at a much higher price.

The UAE deal, which also includes additional LNG deliveries in the coming years, comes at a fixed price and is therefore more advantageous. Scholz recently said that his country "will come through this winter."

The gas deal is part of a broader "Energy Security and Industry Accelerator Agreement" between Germany and the UAE, which "will enable the swift implementation of strategic lighthouse projects on the focus areas of renewable energies, hydrogen, LNG and climate action," Scholz said.

The chancellor, who is accompanied by a business delegation, also signed a deal for the supply of 33,000 tons of diesel to Germany this month, and further monthly diesel supplies of up to 250,000 tons.

Scholz will continue to Qatar later on Sunday for additional energy talks before heading back to Berlin early Monday.


Human rights concerns


The chancellor's trip comes amid persistent concerns about the human rights situation in the Gulf region.

On Saturday, Scholz paid a visit to Saudi Arabia, where he met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to talk about a variety of business issues, including German investments in the future production of green hydrogen in the Arab country. Both leaders also discussed Russia's war in Ukraine, over which Scholz sought to convince bin Salman to take a harder line toward Moscow, and the war in Yemen.

Not long ago, bin Salman was a pariah on the international stage over his reported role in approving the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi government agents.

Asked whether he raised Khashoggi's murder with the crown prince, Scholz said on Saturday: "We discussed all the issues that revolve around questions of civil and human rights. That is how it should be. You can assume that nothing has remained undiscussed that needs to be said."

The chairwoman of the German parliament's human rights committee, the Free Democratic Party's Renata Alt, had urged Scholz to clearly address human rights concerns during his visit to Saudi Arabia and also the UAE and Qatar.

"As important as it is to secure energy supplies to Germany, it is equally important to respect human rights worldwide. You cannot negotiate about one without addressing the other," she said.

Ahead of the Gulf trip, a senior German official had argued that it was important to strike a balance between business and energy security interests on one side and human rights concerns on the other.

"It's a situation that you always have in international relations," the official said. "You have to consider: What are the interests of our country, what are the interests of Europe, what role does Saudi Arabia play in this strategic neighboring region? The prospect that the crown prince will steer the fortunes of the kingdom for the next 10, 20, 30 years suggests that we need a solid working relationship in which differences can and must be discussed, but in which we also take note of the fact that there is a whole range of partnership approaches between Germany and the kingdom," the official said.

"We are not sitting here in world court over third countries," the official continued, stressing that Germany and other Western countries would also talk to Saudia Arabia in the G20 format, "without making any concessions about our clear condemnation and classification of Mr. Khashoggi's murder ... these things exist in parallel; that is the reality."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×