India-UAE Ties: Envy of the World, Says Goyal

Mumbai, Sep 10 (PTI) Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the deepening ties between India and the UAE is a matter of pride, which will make the rest of the world envious.

Speaking at the UAE-India Business Forum meet held during the visit of crown prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan here, Goyal said the partnership between the two countries will be the "defining bond" of this decade and beyond.

In his remarks in the presence of the visiting royal, Goyal took to popular Indian advertisement to describe the Indo-UAE ties, and borrowed from a glue brand's commercial to call it a "strong bond". He further spoke of how a TV maker's tag line of 'owner's pride, neighbour's envy' also resonates.

"The TV set advertisement says 'owner's pride, neighbour's envy'. That summarises the UAE-India partnership. It is our pride and will be the envy of the rest of the world," Goyal said.

In February 2022, both the countries had signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to deepen trade ties and are targeting to take the non-oil bilateral trade to USD 100 billion by 2030.

Al Nahyan, who is on a three-day visit to the country, arrived in the financial capital earlier in the day and attended events including the business forum.

A total of nine memorandums of understanding were signed between companies from India and the United Arab Emirates during the meeting, including an agreement between state-run entities to jointly scout for critical minerals across the world.

Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyodi, the Minister of Foreign Trade in UAE, listed out a slew of aspects on which both the countries have agreed to collaborate including in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, hi-tech, logistics and renewable energy.

On healthcare, both the countries have agreed to address common medical issues through advance patient-centred medical solutions, he said, adding that they also aim to attract patients from other countries in Africa and Europe.

"In advanced technology, we resolved that UAE and India will jointly develop AI infrastructure, particularly in computing power that will allow both nations to leverage data capital for the UAE-India corridor. This will support AI application that can positively impact agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing, smart cities and beyond," he said.

On renewable energy, we agreed to work together to achieve India's target of 500 GW of clean energy by 2030 that is affordable and accessible. We resolved to engage with startups to support the commercialisation of cutting edge technologies.

Other agreements signed between companies from the two countries at the event, which was also attended by Reliance Industries' Nikhil Meswani, Renew's Sumant Sinha and ITC's Sanjiv Puri, included UAE's retail-focused Lulu Group tying up with India's Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority for sourcing organic food products for sale across the world.

They also included a partnership between Rorix and Adani Port, Indian carriers Indigo, Akasa and Air India partnering with UAE's Global Jet Technic.

Apart from that, a Hindi large language model developed by UAE's G42 was also launched at the event.