emirates7 - Abdulla Balalaa, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs for Energy and Sustainable Affairs, took part in a ministerial roundtable organized by the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on "Tackling Water Security Across the Climate-Nature-Development Nexus." The roundtable aimed to emphasize the urgent need for collective action and sustained leadership in addressing the global water crisis.
Chaired by Baroness Chapman, the UK’s Minister of State for International Development, the session brought together ministers from Senegal, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Nepal, and Bangladesh, along with senior leaders from major multilateral institutions such as the European Commission, the World Bank, UNICEF, UN Water, WaterAid, and the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. The goal was to identify priority areas for collaboration over the next year to shift the approach to water issues across the climate-nature-development nexus.
During the meeting, Balalaa highlighted the UAE’s preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference, emphasizing its focus on accelerating the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which he described as the enabler of all SDGs and key global societal, environmental, and economic objectives.
Participants agreed to use significant opportunities in the coming year to build leadership on water, sanitation, and hygiene, drive scalable and innovative solutions to the water crisis, and collaborate with existing UN processes to strengthen the role of water in the international agenda.
Balalaa also attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by His Majesty King Charles III, focusing on "Water and Climate," in collaboration with WaterAid.
This roundtable followed the organizational session of the 2026 UN Water Conference, held on 3rd March at the UN Headquarters in New York. More than 70 participants, including Member States and stakeholders, shared their recommendations for the conference's interactive dialogues, which will be finalized in a preparatory meeting on 9th July 2025.
Chaired by Baroness Chapman, the UK’s Minister of State for International Development, the session brought together ministers from Senegal, Malawi, Morocco, Nigeria, Nepal, and Bangladesh, along with senior leaders from major multilateral institutions such as the European Commission, the World Bank, UNICEF, UN Water, WaterAid, and the Global Commission on the Economics of Water. The goal was to identify priority areas for collaboration over the next year to shift the approach to water issues across the climate-nature-development nexus.
During the meeting, Balalaa highlighted the UAE’s preparations for the 2026 UN Water Conference, emphasizing its focus on accelerating the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which he described as the enabler of all SDGs and key global societal, environmental, and economic objectives.
Participants agreed to use significant opportunities in the coming year to build leadership on water, sanitation, and hygiene, drive scalable and innovative solutions to the water crisis, and collaborate with existing UN processes to strengthen the role of water in the international agenda.
Balalaa also attended a reception at Buckingham Palace hosted by His Majesty King Charles III, focusing on "Water and Climate," in collaboration with WaterAid.
This roundtable followed the organizational session of the 2026 UN Water Conference, held on 3rd March at the UN Headquarters in New York. More than 70 participants, including Member States and stakeholders, shared their recommendations for the conference's interactive dialogues, which will be finalized in a preparatory meeting on 9th July 2025.