"Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has joined the government of the UAE as Deputy Prime Minister and has been appointed Minister of Defence," Sheikh Mohammed, who is the UAE's prime minister, wrote on X.

Sheikh Hamdan, 41, is the second son of Sheikh Mohammed and has held the title of crown prince of Dubai since 2008.

The royal graduated in 2001 from Britain's elite Sandhurst military college and became chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, a body responsible for strategic development plans in the emirate, in 2006.

His father, Sheikh Mohammed, has been defence minister since the founding of the UAE in 1971, when he was just 22-years-old.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minister, was also appointed as a deputy prime minister in the cabinet shuffle.

The minor cabinet reshuffle also saw a number of other ministers changed, as well as the merging of ministries.

The UAE, one of the world's largest oil producers and an ally of the United States, Russia and China, has grown to be a major power in the Middle East.