Current years have witnessed a spread of watershed moments within the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-India bilateral relationship. Throughout all aspects of the partnership, we’ve skilled not solely progress and renewal but in addition a deepening of the historic bonds of friendship and cooperation we’ve lengthy shared.
The official go to to India of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, this week is a testomony to the power and steady enhancement of the connection and attests to the significance the UAE locations upon its strategic partnership with India. The event of this go to additionally supplies a possibility to replicate upon the transformative influence our ties have had, and can proceed to have within the years to return.
From rising strategic alignment to the UAE’s emergence as India’s second-largest export vacation spot, third-largest buying and selling companion, and fourth-largest investor, political, financial, and cultural ties between the UAE and India have by no means been as robust as they’re at this time.
Elementary to the continued growth of our strategic partnership is the popularity of each governments that it’s important that our societies are in a position to receive tangible advantages from the robust strategic foundations we’ve constructed. Throughout all areas of our relationship, Emiratis and Indians, each day, are reaping the rewards of the nearer financial integration, cultural inclusivity, and political understanding we’ve constantly sought to foster.
These dynamics might be discerned within the constructive impacts of the UAE-India Complete Financial Partnership Settlement (CEPA). For the reason that CEPA’s implementation on Might 1, 2022, the UAE and India have witnessed each a qualitative and quantitative shift in our strategic relationship.
In two years alone, whole commerce between our two nations has elevated by almost 15%, with the UAE’s exports to India increasing by over 7% and Indian exports to the UAE rising by a powerful 27%. Considerably, the CEPA has contributed to a speedy change within the composition of our commerce. We’re witnessing a decreased reliance on hydrocarbons as the important thing commodity, which has historically formed commerce ties. The truth is, whole non-oil commerce between the UAE and India registered a 20% enhance in 2023-24. This can be a appreciable achievement and underscores the direct advantages of the CEPA to the UAE’s and India’s important non-oil financial sectors.
I’ve been lucky to look at the progressive and constructive results of this settlement first-hand by means of the UAE-India CEPA Council — a platform that has been particularly designed to advertise grassroots-level engagement and open dialogue between the governments and companies of our two nations. Direct interactions with companies throughout the size and breadth of India, together with inexperienced mobility producers in Andhra Pradesh, natural farmers in West Bengal, and biotechnology entrepreneurs in Maharashtra, have underscored that India’s range is key to its financial prosperity and future progress. It’s this societal dynamism and cultural range that will likely be essential in pushing the boundaries of potentialities past the CEPA into all different aspects of our ties.
In nurturing these strengths to the mutual good thing about each nations, the UAE stays devoted to the continued constructing of inclusive partnerships with India that stretch far past the vital energy centres of New Delhi and Mumbai, to rising cities corresponding to Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, and Jaipur. Not solely that, we additionally want to energise the event of latest initiatives, such because the UAE-India Cultural Council, which can carry higher consciousness to our shared historic bonds and wealthy cultural tapestries. We search to additional develop platforms just like the UAE-India Begin-up Bridge to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit of our two peoples is totally unlocked. And eventually, we’re dedicated to embracing a visionary method to fields corresponding to aviation, the place we imagine there isn’t any restrict to the advantages that may be achieved by means of the availability of higher connectivity and improved alternative for our more and more agile and internationally cell societies.
The outlook for UAE-India bilateral ties is vivid, with quite a few alternatives for collaboration throughout varied sectors. As each nations look to determine new avenues for cooperation in our partnership, fertile floor exists to additional leverage our complementary financial strengths and shared cultural values to construct a resilient, inclusive, and affluent future collectively.
Abdulnasser Alshaali is the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to India.The views expressed are private
