Dubai: Following the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), trade between the two countries has increased by 30 percent.
Attending the India Global Forum, the Diplomatic Adviser to the UAE President Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, said that the two countries “target reaching $100 billion” in annual bilateral trade. “Since 2015, the milestones are just too many to catalogue. What was really an excellent relationship has become strategic and fit for the future relationship.”
“I was speaking to the Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Sunjay Sudhir, last week and he was telling me, we don’t really have the official figures yet, but we are seeing about a 30 percent increase in trade following the signing of Cepa in February,” he said at a panel discussion with Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr S Jaishankar, at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM).
“There are a lot of things that we don’t need to say. There are times when we may occasionally have a different perspective. Even that is often expressed quite subtly between us. So, when I look at the return of history and the relationships, which will go forward in the coming days, I certainly would rank the India-UAE relationship very high on that,” Jai Shankar said.
He observed that the level of cooperation has grown beyond traditional sectors like energy and trade to new areas like space, artificial intelligence, education, and startups, which will “redefine the relationship and help it go to a higher orbit”.
“UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner, second largest export market, and there are more Indian nationals in the UAE than any other country abroad,” the minister was quoted by Khaleej Times.
Follow on Twitter | Posted by Mohammed Baleegh | 
