Abu Dhabi: The UAE places its strategic relationship with India above all and considers the South Asian nation as “one of the most important countries”, a UAE minister said on Monday.
“Our strategic relationship with India is above all since India is one of the most important countries on the globe. So, it has nothing to do with India- Pakistan relations. India is important because it is India. It has opportunity, potential, science and population,” Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs told Asian News International.
The minister was talking to the Indian news agency ahead of visit of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces to New Delhi beginning Tuesday. Shaikh Mohammad will be the chief guest at India’s 68th Republic Day celebrations.
The minister emphasised on improving engagement between the two nations. “It is very difficult to engage with India because India is a large democracy ... so a lot of time it is busy with itself. In today’s world, you have to nurture relationships ... you have to build good relationships,” he told the news agency.
While stating that India is a global power, Dr Gargash said it is in New Delhi’s interest to win this fight against extremism and terrorism.
“We (India, UAE) have this wonderful relationship. Things are moving well. In the next 12 months, we will see more developments in the relationship,” he said.
“The model of the UAE is a Muslim country and at the same time it is a modern country. To achieve that, you have to be open to the world, tolerant and you should be able to offer something to a more globalised world. So, along these lines, I think we are doing very well,” he added.
In order to defeat terrorism, the minister said, extremist forces need to be undermined. “The UAE always believes that there is a relationship between extremism and terrorism. What we need to do in our fight against terrorism is to undermine and confront extremist forces in various ways, as how they deal with women and how they present view of Islam and the way they want to impose ultraorthodox conservatism on society. All these things are basically the foundation that leads to terrorism,” Dr Gargash said.
“We can combat with terrorism by three things. First is security cooperation, this is essential because it is extremely important to share information and understand who these cells are. Second is to block the money trail because these organisations cannot move without funding their operation. Third is counter narrative that means you need to tackle some of the extremist who have been much more active in using modern media like Twitter,” he said.
UAE working to counter extremism
The UAE is committed to countering extremism in all forms, an official said on Monday.
Talking to to Asia News International, Maqsoud Kruse, the executive director of Hedayah, the Abu Dhabi-based International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism (CVE), said the country is developing a national strategy to counter violent extremism.
“When we talk about countering violent extremism, we talk about prevention, when we talk about community engagement, we talk about community actors whether it is women, families and parents. When we talk about community policing, we talk about community leaders, religious leaders and cultural leaders. It is engaging the society because at the end of the day we all are part of the solution,” Kruse told ANI.
Talking about youngsters being recruited by terrorist groups, he said young men and women go through the “process of radicalisation” and end up in killing people or killing their own selves.
He emphasised on the need to deradicalise the fighters who have succeeded in returning to their homes and the ways to integrate them back into the societies.
