Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, managing director and group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) By Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al JaberTrust is built in decades and proven under pressure. As one of the world's largest net energy importers, few economies understand this principle better than South Korea. Korea's industrial strength rests on a simple premise: that the partners it relies on will always be there. The UAE has been one of those partners for more than four decades.Korea’s massive refineries run on imported crude and one in ten of every barrel they use comes from the UAE. This is energy that is converted to diesel and jet fuel, as well as the feedstocks for Korea’s petrochemicals, advanced plastics and semiconductor industries. We also supply a full range of refined products and gas that help keep Korea cooled, heated and moving forward. In short, the UAE is a proud partner across Korea’s economy, and it is a relationship that goes both ways. Korean companies are equity partners in Abu Dhabi’s upstream exploration companies and a joint venture partner in a growing low-carbon ammonia project in TA’ZIZ, our new world-scale integrated refining and petrochemicals complex. Korean shipyards are building eight of the most advanced LNG carriers in the world for our fleet. And when the UAE chose to diversify into nuclear energy, it was Korea we turned to for its nuclear know-how and engineering expertise. As a result, the Barakah nuclear plant today supplies 5.6 GW of safe, clean power to factories and homes across the UAE. In fact, over twenty-five percent of all our electricity.Our countries share a progressive optimism. A belief that through focus and hard work tomorrow will be better than today. Both know that progress is built, not inherited. As such, we do not stand on our past achievements but are constantly looking for what’s next. That is why I am here in Seoul this week. To explore ways to take our relationship to the next level. Last year, President Lee Jae Myung's state visit to the UAE deepened our economic partnership across energy, industry and advanced technology through a joint declaration. And in May of this year, we finalized the UAE-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, the first such agreement between South Korea and an Arab nation. Now I am keen to help translate strategic intent into facts on the ground.While some worry about scarcity, our message to Korea is simple: we are growing, and we want to grow with you -- as your most dependable, most competitive and lowest-carbon partner, not for the next cargo but for the next generation. Backed by a $150 billion investment program, we are raising our crude production capacity to five million barrels a day by 2027, while we continue to invest in resilient routes to market. We are integrating advanced technologies and AI to remain among the most cost- and carbon-efficient producers globally, and we are ready to provide more of our signature Murban crude that your refineries prefer. We will continue to support Korea’s energy security as a principal supplier of your strategic petroleum reserves, and, as we expand our petrochemical offerings through Borouge International and Covestro, we will make a diverse range of advanced products available to Korea’s fast-expanding high-tech industrial base. And our partnership goes beyond the conventional barrel. Through Masdar, the UAE’s renewable energy champion, we are partnering on wind and solar projects across the region. As the UAE steps up, we invite our Korean partners to step up alongside us — deepening investment, expanding industrial collaboration and helping shape the next chapter of our shared growth.Korea's goals are clear: to remain a manufacturing superpower in an AI-enabled world, to decarbonize its industry, and never to be left exposed on energy. A supplier in retreat cannot serve those goals. A partner that is expanding in volume, in lower-carbon products, in shared commitment and long-term investment can.That is what the UAE offers Korea: not the trade of the past, but the capacity to keep building the future, together.Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is the UAE’s Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, Managing Director and Group CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Executive Chairman of XRG and Chairman of Masdar. The views expressed in this article are his own. -- Ed.