BANGKOK, Oct. 18 -- On the day the United Arab Emirates announced it had signed to host the world's finance ministers in 2029, a tugboat off its east coast was reported hit by two unknown projectiles. Nothing links the two events. They share a date and a country.

The agreement brings the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to Abu Dhabi in October 2029, the first time they have been held in the Emirates since Dubai hosted them in 2003. Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, the UAE's minister of state for financial affairs, and central bank governor Khaled Balama signed in Bangkok alongside World Bank president Ajay Banga and IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva, the UAE Ministry of Finance said in a stateme...