India, UAE discuss ways to deepen Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra on Tuesday held a meeting with UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy and discussed ways to further deepen the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two nations.

During the meeting in Delhi, Vinay Kwatra and Reem Ebrahim Al Hashimy reviewed the entire gamut of multifaceted bilateral ties.

In a post on X, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated, “Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra met MoS (International Cooperation) @mofauae Reem Al Hashimy in New Delhi today. They reviewed the entire gamut of our multi-faceted bilateral relations, and discussed avenues to further deepen the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.”

Earlier this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that in the last 10 years, the perception of India has changed to quite an extent in the Gulf country.

Speaking at the South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce — Corporate Summit 2024 in Surat on Monday, Jaishankar said, “In the last 10 years, the perception about India has changed in the UAE. They signed a free trade agreement with us and today the trade with the UAE has reached about 80 billion dollars.”

“Our request to build a temple there has been accepted…PM Narendra Modi went to UAE in 2016 and the last PM to go to the UAE was Indira Gandhi and after her, no PM went there till 2016” he underlined.

The iconic BAPS Hindu Mandir, which is the first Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi, was inaugurated on February 14 by Mahant Swami Maharaj in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and the UAE’s Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahyan.

Earlier in 2022, India and the United Arab Emirates signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) aimed at boosting the merchandise trade between the two countries to USD 100 billion over the next five years, according to a Ministry of Commerce and Industry press release. The deal was signed during the virtual summit meeting between PM Modi and Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.