India, UAE hold first strategic dialogue

India and the UAE held the first meeting of their strategic dialogue in New Delhi to elevate the bilateral relationship to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
The meeting was co-chaired by Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs M J Akbar and MoS in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of UAE Anwar Gargash.
The first dialogue took place pursuant to the decision to elevate the relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE in August 2015 followed by crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan visit to India in February 2016.

Key Highlights of first India-UAE strategic dialogue

• Two sides discussed several issues ranging from cooperation in the areas of trade and investments to expanding the bilateral cooperation to new areas under the strategic partnership.
• The news areas include energy security, renewable energy, defence and security, electronics and information technology and space.
• Both sides also finalised the Strategic Cooperation Agreement aimed at expanding bilateral cooperation to new key areas including energy, defence and security between both countries.
• They also agreed on a number of new initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral cooperation and on signing of fresh instruments of cooperation.

India-UAE Relations

• India-UAE Relations deeply rooted in history and strategic cooperation which is driven by mutual aspirations of both countries.
• UAE is lynch-pin of the economic, defence and strategic strands of the India’s coordinated strategy to outreach west Asia.
• UAE is India’s third largest trading partner after China and the United States. Bilateral trade between India and the UAE stood at about $50 billion in 2015-16.
• UAE is among the top investors in India in terms of foreign direct investments (FDI) and was the fifth largest supplier of crude oil to India in 2015-16.
• Besides, there are also more than 2.6 million Indians living in the UAE and their annual remittance is estimated to be around 14 billion dollars.

Month: Current Affairs - January, 2017