News that an Abu Dhabi-based investment fund is to take a strategic stake in Daimler will excite envy among other carmakers scrabbling for capital, along with the familiar sneers about Arab investors with more money than sense.

But we should look closer at what the oil-rich city-state is buying. Sitting on 8 per cent of the world’s crude reserves and the senior partner in the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi is clear if not always transparent about its ambitions.