When I look back at our six months at Expo 2025 Osaka, one memory rises above the architectural achievement, the global media attention and the five million visitors who walked through our pavilion. It is the sight of young Emiratis, poised, humble and deeply rooted in who they are, speaking confidently in Arabic, English and Japanese, and doing so not as staff, but as the UAE’s voice to the world.
The UAE pavilion’s Youth Ambassadors Programme was more than a staffing model. It was a national statement. It reflected our belief that the UAE’s future will be shaped by young people who understand their identity, who can navigate cultures with respect and who represent their nation with clarity and pride. This is why the programme was designed not simply as a support function for the pavilion, but as a living expression of how the UAE develops leadership from an early stage.
The UAE’s approach to youth has always centred on trust, responsibility and exposure to real experiences. National initiatives led by the Federal Youth Authority, together with long-term frameworks that guide the country’s development, place young Emiratis at the heart of the nation’s future. The Youth Ambassadors Programme reflects this direction. It gives young people genuine responsibility, places them in environments that demand cultural awareness and prepares them for the kind of leadership that will shape the UAE’s role in the world.
More than 5,400 young people applied for the Youth Ambassadors Programme, an unprecedented number that revealed a generation eager not only to serve, but to serve globally. From this pool, 46 were selected, including Emiratis, Japanese and young residents of Japan. Their diversity did not dilute identity, it strengthened it. Together, they embodied a partnership between two nations whose friendship has endured for more than half a century.
Their journey began in the UAE, not through manuals or scripts, but through lived experience. They met innovators, historians, athletes, scientists and young leaders, all of whom reflected a nation confident in its heritage and ambitious in its vision. They saw how the UAE balances progress with values, speed with stability and openness with rootedness. This is where their diplomacy truly began.
When they arrived in Osaka, they understood that they were not simply representing a pavilion. They were representing a country that has grown from its first Expo participation in this city more than five decades ago to hosting the world at Expo 2020 Dubai and now returning to Japan with an identity shaped by partnership, innovation and human connection. This continuity gave their role depth and meaning.
Inside the pavilion, they welcomed families, students, officials and global leaders with the sincerity that defines our culture. Their greetings were not rehearsed. They came from an understanding that the UAE is best understood through its people. They guided visitors through our contributions in healthcare, sustainability and space, but the facts were not the message. The message was the human spirit behind them and the values that drive the UAE’s approach to co-operation and progress.
Throughout the Expo, I watched them build trust not with speeches, but with small acts, including a bow returned with a smile, a proverb translated with care and a Japanese visitor expressing surprise at hearing Arabic spoken with fluency and grace. These are not statistics. They are the quiet interactions upon which soft power is built, and they reflect how meaningful diplomacy can emerge from simple exchanges when grounded in sincerity.
By October, I could see a transformation that was not superficial. It was measured in confidence, cultural fluency and responsibility. Some Youth Ambassadors have since expressed a desire to join the diplomatic corps, others to pursue space, healthcare or sustainability, fields that reflect not only the pavilion’s themes but also the UAE’s priorities for the century ahead. Their service in Osaka was not an endpoint. It was an opening and a reminder of how experiential learning strengthens national capacity.
The pavilion received the Best Staff Award, a recognition that belongs not to an institution, but to those young people who stood for their nation with humility and pride. Their professionalism shaped Japan’s perception of who we are today. A country that listens. A country that collaborates. A country that builds bridges. Their contribution became part of the wider narrative of the UAE as a partner committed to dialogue and collective progress.
As our country looks toward the future, the Youth Ambassadors Programme offers a model for how leadership can be cultivated not in classrooms alone, but through real exchanges, real responsibilities and real encounters with difference. It demonstrates how young people can carry national values with confidence and how international platforms such as Expo can prepare the UAE’s next generation to engage with the world with purpose and clarity.
Expo 2025 Osaka has concluded, but its legacy continues in the Youth Ambassadors who carry it forward, in their studies, their careers and the way they will greet the world the next time they stand on an international stage. Their story is not simply one of service. It is one of becoming. It is a reminder that our greatest investments are not in buildings or exhibitions, but in the generation that will shape how the UAE is understood long after the lights of Expo fade.
In them, I have seen the UAE’s future. Confident, courteous and ready to engage the world with clarity, respect and purpose.
