In 2018, a delegation from the United Arab Emirates accompanied Adnan Amin, the Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency based in Abu-Dhabi, to the fifth Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík, Iceland.[5] Ziad Reslan of the Kennedy School of Government and Marwa Maziad of Arctic Studies at the University of Washington noted the Arab World and the Arctic have a natural connection, given the importance of energy income management operating in rentier states, and that the refugee crisis overlaps with a need for increased migrant workers in the far north.[5]