Abu Dhabi: The three-day visit of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to India begins on Wednesday as he arrives in the capital New Delhi accompanied by a delegation of ministers, government officials, economists and buisness executives.
The visit, the first by Shaikh Mohammad, will focus on stepping up economic ties between the two countries as well as addressing strategic issues of mutual interest, such as combating terrorism and peaceful harnessing of nuclear energy, among other areas.
Ahmad Al Banna, UAE Ambassador to India, said containing radicalism, stepping up counter-terrorism cooperation and dealing with Daesh will figure prominently in talks Shaikh Mohammad will have with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. At least 16 pacts in a wide range of sectors such as nuclear energy, oil, IT, aerospace and railways, facilitating billions of dollars of investment by UAE in India, are likely to be signed during the visit.
“We have on hand around 16 agreements for cooperation between different ministries and authorities. Out of 16, almost 12 have been finalised and ready for signature. Hopefully all the 16 will be signed,” said Al Banna.
Shaikh Mohammad will also meet Indian President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday. On Friday, the delegation will move on to the financial capital Mumbai.
The UAE’s strong emphasis on innovation as the driving force of development and its growth plans based on the Internet of Things (IoT) find resonance with India’s impressive seeding ground for start-ups and the visit will aim to benefit from such mutually beneficial economic projections as the next great leap forward for the two countries.
India is UAE’s number one trading partner and the annual trade currently stands at around $60 billion (Dh220.39 billion). UAE, a major player in the Gulf region, is a strategically important country for India.
The UAE is home to around 2.6 million Indians and was the sixth largest supplier of crude oil to India in 2014-15.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE in August 2015, after a gap of 34 years of an Indian prime ministers visit here, opened a new path in strengthening ties between the two countries. Shaikh Mohammad’s trip will build on it, ambassador Al Banna said. “It [the visit] will reinforce the ongoing relationship and will take us to the next [level] that both sides are looking at which is strategic cooperation, strategic coordination and strategic relationship,” the envoy said.
India’s Ambassador to the UAE T.P Seetharam said India is keenly awaiting the visit of Shaikh Mohammad. “This is a visit of great significance and reflects the keenness of both sides to take bilateral relations to an even higher level.”
According to the Ambassador, while the UAE and India have traditionally enjoyed great people-to-people contacts and trade relations, the bridge that has now been established is of excellent government-to-government relations. “This is a bridge we need to cross more often,” Seetharam said.
