His Excellency Dr. Abdulnasser Alshaali was appointed by Federal Decree No. 124 of 2022 dated September 19, 2022, as the Ambassador of the UAE to the Republic of India. He previously held the position of Assistant Minister for Economic and Trade Affairs (ETA).
In his pervious capacity, Alshaali was responsible for facilitating the implementation of the country's economic policy towards other countries, promoting the country's economic, trade and financial interests, and ensuring the necessary support is provided to facilitate foreign investments growth and that such investments are in line with the country's bilateral and multilateral relations policy.
Prior to that, Alshaali was the Director of the ETA Department since March 2019. He was also the Director of Policy Planning Department (PPD) from December 2016 to February 2019, which falls under the purview of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International. His role included the continuous and periodic review of the UAE’s foreign policy as well as the drafting of policy papers. Alshaali was tasked to oversee PPD from January 2021 to January 2022.
His current board memberships include the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) Board of Trustees and the Zayed University (ZU) Council. His previous board memberships included the National Media Council. Recently, Alshaali assumed an adjunct faculty role at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA), teaching "The Geopolitics of Food Security" at the Master's level.
Alshaali joined the Ministry in March 2013 as an Economist in the Office of the Foreign Minister, before being appointed as the Head of Research and Content Management in November 2014. In November 2015, he was assigned as Deputy Director in PPD. Before joining the Ministry, Alshaali worked at Emirates Airline.
Throughout his professional career, Alshaali won several awards, including the Foreign Minister’s Medal for the Distinguished Director, the Foreign Minister’s Award for the Distinguished Employee, and the Knowledge Day Award by the Crown Prince of Ajman.
Alshaali holds a PhD in Economics from the Australian National University for his thesis: ‘Re-Conceptualising Comparative Advantage and Food Sovereignty: An Unconventional Approach to Global Food Security’ and Master’s in Business Management from Paris Sorbonne University for a thesis that conceptualises a methodology to quantify bilateral relations between countries. He also holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Murdoch University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the American University of Sharjah. He was born in Dubai on the 11th of October 1988. Alshaali is a keen traveler and a devoted student of economics and food security. His interests include fishing, soccer and playing chess. He is married and has two children: Saoud and Lamya.
