A personal letter from a young boy to one of the Arab world’s most prominent leaders turned into a face-to-face meeting after Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, invited Roger Xie for a visit.
The encounter, which also included Roger’s family, stemmed from a letter the boy had written to Sheikh Mohammed expressing his affection for Dubai. The ruler responded not just with words, but with a personal audience.
Sheikh Mohammed opened the meeting with a direct message of reassurance. “Dubai loves you too… and you are safe,” he told Roger, adding that Roger, along with his family and friends, had a permanent place of safety in the country. “You, your family and your friends will always be safe in Dubai and the UAE,” he said.
The ruler described Roger’s decision to write the letter as both intelligent and brave — qualities he said brought him genuine happiness upon receiving the message.
Roger used the occasion to thank Sheikh Mohammed for the security the UAE provides, to which the ruler gave a simple, unambiguous response: “You will always be safe here.”
Before the meeting concluded, Sheikh Mohammed presented Roger with a copy of his book My Vision and a UAE flag, alongside personal wishes for the boy’s success. His final words carried the tone of the entire exchange: “Remember, I will always be your friend.”
The gift of My Vision — a book in which Sheikh Mohammed outlines his philosophy of governance and ambition for the UAE — marked the meeting as more than a ceremonial gesture, offering Roger a window into the ideas that shaped the city he wrote to declare his love for.
