India-UAE Relations

India and United Arab Emirates (UAE) enjoy strong bonds of friendship founded on millennia-old cultural, religious and economic intercourse between the two regions. People-to-people contacts and barter trade between the two regions have existed for centuries. The relationship flourished since the creation of the UAE Federation in 1971. Both sides have made sincere efforts to improve relations in all fields.

India-UAE bilateral relations have received impetus from time-to-time with exchange of high-level visits from both sides. Important visits from India at different levels include visits of President Dr. visited UAE (1976); President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (2003) and President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil (2010) and Prime Minister Smt. (1981). Visits at Foreign Minister-level include those of EAM Mr. (2008); EAM Mr. S. M. Krishna (2012); MOS (EA) Mr. E. Ahmed (2012 & 2013) and EAM Mr. (2013). During his transit visit on February 5, 2014 EAM held a telephone conversation with the UAE Foreign Minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and conveyed best wishes for the speedy recovery of the UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Important visits from the UAE side to India include visits of UAE’s former President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (1975 & 1992); Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai (2007, 2010 & 2011); Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, Sheikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2011); Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan (2007; 2011, 2012 & 2013); MOS (FA) Dr. Anwar Mohammed Gargash (2012); Assistant Minister (FA) Mr. Khaled Ghanim Al-Gaith (2011) and Assistant Minister (FA) Mr. Tariq Ahmed Ibrahim Al Haidan (2012).

Other ministerial-level visits from India to the UAE include those of Mr. , Minister for Overseas Indian Minister (2012 & 2013); Mr. Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry (2013); Mr. P. Chidambaram, Minister of Finance (twice in 2013); Mr. , Minister of Civil Aviation (2013); Mr. MOPNG (2012); Mr. , MOPNG (2013); and Dr. , Minister of New and Renewable Energy ( 2011, 2012 & 2014). From the UAE side visits include those of Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade’s (2009 & 2012); Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of ADIA (2012) and Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Mr. Obaid Humaid Al Tayer (2012); MOS Ministry of Finance accompanying the Foreign Minister (2013); Minister of Energy, Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei (2014) and Minister of Economy, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri (2014).

Two countries have signed a number of Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding from time-to-time in different sectors. This include [1] Cultural Cooperation Agreement (1975); [2] Civil Aviation Agreement (1989 and revised in 2014); [3] Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (1992), Protocol to amend the India-UAE Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (2012); [4] Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1994); [5] Extradition Treaty (1999); [6] Mutual

Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal & Civil Matters (1999); [7] Agreement on Juridical and Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters (1999); [8] Information Cooperation Agreement (2000); [9] Channel Carriage Agreement (2000); [10] MoU on Defence Cooperation (2003); [11] MoU on Manpower Sourcing in (2006), A revised MoU on Manpower Sourcing (2011); [12] MoU on Political Consultations (2011); [13] Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons (2011); [14] Agreement on Security Cooperation (2011); [15] Agreement on Customs Cooperation (2012); [16] Protocol to streamline admission of Indian contract workers by way of an electronic contract registration and validation system (2012), [17] MoU on establishing a Joint Committee on Consular Affairs (2012); [18] Bilateral Agreement on Promotion and Protection of Investments (2013) and [19] MoU on Cooperation in the field of Renewable Energy (2014).

In the form of Joint Commission for Economic and Technical Cooperation (JCM); Foreign Office Consultations (FOC); High Level Task Force on Investment (HLTFI); Joint Committee on Security Matters (JCSM); Joint Committee on Consular Matters (JCCM); Joint Defense Cooperation Committee (JDCC) and Joint Committee on Manpower Resources (JCMR) India and UAE have institutional mechanisms in place to maintain a dialogue for addressing the the sector-specific issues. JCM, FOC and HLTFI are held at the Ministerial/Assistant Ministerial levels. JCSM, JCCM, JDCC and JSMR are held at senior official (Secretary/Additional Secretary) levels. In addition to above a Local Coordination and Grievance Redressal Mechanism to redress grievances of the Indian community is also in place in the form of a Local Coordination Committee (LCC). LCC, comprising of officers from the Embassy and their UAE counterparts meets on a monthly basis to follow-up on consular, manpower and community related issues.

Economic and Commercial cooperation with the UAE is a key aspect of overall bilateral relationship. The traditionally close and friendly India-UAE bilateral relationship has evolved into a significant partnership in the economic and commercial sphere. Indians have emerged as important investors within the UAE and India as an important export destination for the UAE manufactured goods. There are 700 direct flights per week between various destinations of India and the UAE. India-UAE trade, valued at US$180 million per annum in the 1970s reached level of $ 75 billion during 2012-2013. For UAE, India is the largest trading partner. India's major export items to UAE include petroleum products; precious metals; stones, gems & jewellery; minerals; food items (cereals, sugar, fruits & vegetables, tea, meat, and seafood); textiles (garments, apparel, synthetic fibre, cotton, yarn); and engineering & machinery products and chemicals. India’s major import items from UAE include petroleum and petroleum products; precious metals; stones, gems & jewellery; minerals; chemicals; wood & wood products.

Total FDI from UAE to India is estimated to be US$2.36 billion (November 2012). UAE is the tenth biggest investor in India in terms of FDI. UAE’s investments in India are concentrated mainly in five sectors: Power (15%), Metallurgical Industries (12%), Construction Development (11%), Services Sector (10%) and Computer Software & Hardware (5%). Prominent UAE companies such as DP World, EMAAR, RAK etc. have invested significantly in various sectors of the Indian economy. Several prominent private and public sector Indian companies and banks are also operating in the UAE. Major Indian companies such as L& T, ESSAR, Dodsal, Punj Lloyd, Engineers India Ltd., TClL

etc. have been able to obtain significant number of contracts in the UAE. On April 23, 2013 Jet and Etihad Airways signed an US$8 billion agreement, where Etihad airlines would be investing US$379 million in Jet Airways for a 24% stake in the shareholding. At the first meeting of India-UAE HLTFI held on February 18, 2013 in Abu Dhabi, ADIA announced its plans of investing US$2 billion in Indian infrastructure sector.

Both countries share historic cultural ties and have maintained regular cultural exchanges both at official and popular levels. India and UAE signed a Cultural Agreement in 1975. Indian Cultural Centre was opened by ICCR in the premises of the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi in December 2009. Prominent events organized by the Culture Centre include handicraft bazaar – ‘Discover India’ (February 2011); poetry reading session by Dr. Satchidanandan, an Indian poet and Arabic Translations by Arabic poet Dr. Shihab Ghanem; a seminar on ‘Indo-Arab relations through the ages in History, Art & Culture’, with special emphasis on UAE (November 2011); retrospective of Shyam Benegal’s films (October 2012) and talks by Ms Shehnaz Hussain (March 2013) & Dr. Anil Kakodkar (January 2014). UAE’s Ministry of Culture and organizations as Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) have been close partners in organizing various Indian cultural events.

UAE is home to Indian expatriate community of more than 2.6 million – the largest expatriate community in the UAE. Professionally qualified personnel constitute about 15 & 20 percent of the community, followed by 20 percent white-collar non-professionals (clerical staff, shop assistants, sales men, accountants, etc) and remainder 65% comprises of blue-collar workers. There is a significant business community from India. The Indian community has played a major role in the economic development of the UAE. The annual remittances made by the large Indian community in UAE amount to over US$8 billion (2012).

With a large number of blue-collared Indian workers focus of bilateral relations is also on developing efficient grievance-redressal mechanisms for the Indian workers in the UAE. The UAE’s Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs are working closely to evolve a new arrangement that would make the system of recruitment and contracting more transparent. India and UAE signed a MoU in the field of Manpower Sourcing in December 2006 and a Protocol to streamline the admission of Indian contract workers by way of an electronic contract registration and validation system was signed on April 4, 2012. Two-day International employers’ conference was organized by the MOIA on October 27-28 in Dubai, which dealt with the situation of Indian workers in the Gulf and steps to be taken to further improve them. The Embassy has Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) for providing short term economic assistance (food, shelter, passage expenses etc...) to destitute workers/housemaids in distress. Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC) with a 24-hour helpline is operating in Dubai since November 2010. Regular visits to jails and labour camps by the officers of the Embassy and Consulate and Open house held every working day of the week at the Embassy and Consulate for the Indian Community members, are some of other mechanisms to ensure regular communication between the Embassy & and Consulate with the Indian community.

For more information and latest updates please visit Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi website: http://indembassyuae.org/home.html Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/IndianEmbassy.Abudhabi

***** February 2014