(Bloomberg) -- A delegation of leading US green energy firms will visit the United Arab Emirates in March seeking to boost cooperation at a time of rising competition from Chinese businesses in the Gulf, according to an American official. 

“We’re going to have top companies visiting, who can be great solution providers in the clean tech space,” Dilawar Syed, Special Representative for Commercial & Business Affairs at the State Department, said in an interview in Dubai. Syed expects deals but didn’t name any of the roughly 15 companies likely to participate.  

The UAE became the first of the Gulf’s oil-exporting states to commit to a net-zero strategy, and is set to host next year’s COP28 climate summit. The country’s ties with the US, meanwhile, are being tested by the inroads made by Chinese companies and technologies.  

In December, the UAE said it was suspending talks with the US on a $23 billion deal to purchase 50 F-35 jets and other weaponry. Negotiations had slowed amid American pressure on the Gulf country to remove Huawei Technologies Co. from its telecommunications network and take other steps to distance itself from Beijing.

Syed’s attending the US-UAE Economic Policy Dialogue, where agencies are focused on boosting cooperation in energy diversification, supply chains, food security, IP data, healthcare and life-science research.

He dismissed concerns the US is losing out to China in the Gulf. 

“There’s so much willingness to do business with US companies and US entrepreneurs,” he said, pointing to links forged by Emiratis educated in the US. “They are way more familiar with us than with anyone else in the world and those are very important levers, because relationships matter.”

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