This chapter investigates the reasons why the UAE decided to join the BRICS. Due to the recentness of this adhesion, the ideas presented here are exploratory. This exercise shows that even though there is space for increased rapport in different fields, joining the BRICS does not seem necessary in order for the UAE to better relations with the forum’s member-states. The primary explanation that this chapter offers is that this adhesion should be understood as a continuation of the UAE’s traditional foreign policy of multilateral immersion and pursuit of international status. It is also suggested that this move symbolizes a more recent dimension in the country’s foreign policy. Specifically, that there are alternative paths of cooperation and engagement that do not run through the West, and that the country is unbounded in the pursuit of its national interest. In this sense, in addition to the contribution that this article makes for the study of UAE foreign policy, it also adds to the examination of the dynamics of relations within the Global South as well as its more general impact in the development of the global order, particularly in its relation with the United States.