In a big boost to India’s engagement with the Middle East,
NDA government has extended invitation to UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Zayed Al Nahyan to be the chief guest for the 68th Republic Day
parade. Of late, India is using this occasion to reshape and send message to
crucial message to global partners. As against the precedent of inviting head
of state or head of government, Modi government invited Deputy commander of
Chief Nahyan choosing to invest in the future leadership. Moreover, the crown
Prince popularly known as MBZ is the most highly popular leader not only in
Emirates but in entire Gulf. He is the third leader from the Middle East to
grace the Republic Day celebrations.
Delhi hosted Mohammed Khatami, President of Iran in 2003 and King
Abdullah of Saudi Arabia in 2006. Middle East had a vital importance for
India’s security and prosperity. In 1974 when India was condemned for
conducting nuclear tests, Shiekh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, father of UAE,
supported India’s position and stressed the need for development of nuclear
energy by all countries. Later Indira Gandhi in her bilateral visit to UAE
cemented relations with UAE but lagged in attracting investments. Pakistan
under Z. A. Bhutto and Zia-ul-Haq steadily built strong relations with UAE. In
over next past four decades, relations between the countries had its own ups
and downs.
Prime Minister Modi on his visit to UAE reenergized bilateral
relations and endeavored to bring UAE investors on board. He reinvigorated
bilateral ties resting on the pivots of energy security, trade, Defence &
Security, and remittances. A series of reciprocal visits by Ministers from both
countries maintained steady momentum in bilateral ties. Deputy Crown Prince
visited India in Feb 2016 when both countries mooted the idea of elevating
strategic bilateral relationship to Comprehensive strategic bilateral
partnership. India and UAE during Crown Prince’s state visit have signed 14
Agreements/MoUs which included the much-anticipated Comprehensive Strategic
Partnership calling for high level cooperation in different sectors.
Accordingly, agreements are signed in the areas of defence, cyberspace,
maritime transport, road transport, combatting human trafficking, small and
medium enterprises (SME), agriculture and allied sectors and trade.
Regional Security and
Counter terror cooperation
The shared concerns of
regional security and growing terror attacks have propelled countries to
elevate the cooperation in countering international terrorism. UAE’s elevated
concerns about burgeoning terror in the region can be traced to the recent to
the killings of five UAE diplomats in terror strikes conducted by Afghan
Taliban at Kandahar on January 10th 2017. A high elvel investigation
conducted by UAE suggested the involvement of Haqqani network headed by a
Afghan Taliban leader. This incident brought about a marked shift in UAE’s
approach towards against terrorism. Pakistan and UAE were once strategic allies
and an attack on UAE diplomats by Pakistan aided terror network is indeed
intriguing. A cloud of mistrust enveloped Pakistan-UAE ties since Islamabad
refused to join the Saudi-alliance fighting the Yemen war in 2015. Bilateral
ties plummeted further when the Modi resurrected India’s ties with UAE at
around the same time. Besides, UAE threatened by growing presence of IS in its
backyard reaffirmed support for counter terrorism call given by Modi in 2015. UAE went one step further and in an official
statement chastised Pakistan. “The
two nations reject extremism and any link between religion and terrorism. They
condemn efforts, including by States, to use religion to justify, support and
sponsor terrorism against other countries. They also deplore efforts by
countries to give religious and sectarian colour to political issues and
disputes, including in West and South Asia, and use terrorism to pursue their
aims”.
UAE is one of the first nations that not only condemned the
Pathankot and Uri attacks but supported India’s surgical strikes. India and UAE
signed an extradition treaty in 2000 heralding cooperation between the security
agencies of both countries. Now UAE is no longer the preferred hideout of
Pakistan terror operatives. Reiterating strong condemnation towards terrorism
both sides stated that “We denounce and
oppose terror in all forms and manifestations, wherever committed and by
whomever. We call on all states to reject and abandon use of terrorism against
other countries, dismantle terrorism infrastructures where they exist and bring
perpetrators of terrorism to justice” in the Joint Statement. Both
countries agreed to coordinate efforts to counter radicalization, misuse of
religions by groups and countries for inciting hatred and perpetrating acts of
terror. They emphasized on the need for cultural inclusiveness, openness and
tolerance. To foster cultural inclusiveness UAE is currently working through
state-sponsored Hedayah groups, with Islamic clerics, schools to wean away from
extremist ideologies, extricate extremism from school curriculum. Sermons
delivered by Imams on Friday are now heavily vetted by government. Without
naming Pakistan, UAE has slammed it for state-sponsored terror.
Economic Engagement
India and UAE have strong ties in trade and commerce. Bilateral
trade which was mere $700 million in 1971 steadily rose to $50 billion making
it the third largest partner of trade after China and US. UAE is second largest
export destination of India amounting to $30 billion after US. Earlier, precious
stones, Gems, and jewelry formed the bulk of export basket now engineering and
machinery spare parts dominate it. is
the tenth biggest investor in terms of FDI.
For UAE, India is the largest trade partner. While UAE reaffirmed
interest in investing in various area, no agreements are signed pertaining to
$75 billion investment.
Energy Security
Besides, UAE is very crucial for India’s energy security. In
a major push to energy security, India signed a deal with UAE’s Abu Dhabi
National Oil Co (ADNOC) under New Delhi’s Strategic Petrol Reserve System. It
is an emergency system with an underground storage of 36.87 million barrels of
crude oil sufficient to meet energy needs of country for 10 days. Under the
agreement with ADNOC will store 6 million barrels crude oil (roughly half the
capacity of site), at Mangalore wherein India will have first rights over the
oil during emergency. Maintenance of these essential reserves of crude oil is
an effort to mitigate countries needs during emergencies. The other had of
Mangalore site is already filled with Iranian oil. India has underground
facility at Visakhapatnam with 7.55 million barrels of Iraqi oil and
Karnataka’s Paduran has capacity of 18.3 million barrels. US has the largest
strategic oil reserves. China plans to increase to strategic petroleum reserves
to 90 days of supply by 2020.
Other areas of
cooperation
Both countries have agreed on manufacturing defence equipment
and expanded joint military training. India and UAE combined military exercise
Desert Eagle, resumed after eight years. 179-member strong UAE military
contingent marched along Indian soldiers on Republic Day heralding the message
of friendship and solidarity. In the spirit of nationalism, Burj Khalifa was
lit in tricolors on Republic Day. Of the 6 million Indian expatriates, 2.6
million stay in UAE next to 3.2 million Indian in US. Remittance from UAE is
accounts for $15 billion. Both sides agreed to collaborate on renewable energy,
climate change and initiated a dialogue for space cooperation.
Geopolitical Advantage
Strengthened Indo-UAE
ties has imminent strategic advantages. Till now Pakistan stalled and weakened
India’s resolutions on Kashmir at UN drawing support from OIC. UAE has
significant clout in GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and OIC (Organization of
Islamic Cooperation). With UAE levitating towards India, OIC can be little
considerate towards Indian concerns of Kashmir. Above all, UAE can be strong
partner for India in the strategic gulf area.
For decades, India’s
engagement with Middle East was stymied by vested interests who brought the
predicament of religion. Further, India’s emphasis on non-alignment, opposition
to military alignments had no takers in middle east. Plagued by hesitations,
India frittered away many opportunities. Pakistan on the hand, playing faith
card, quickly scored over India. But of late Islamabad is struggling to balance
ties between arch rivals- Iran and Saudi Arabia. Pakistan’s refusal to be part
of 39-nation Saudi Arabia alliance to counter terrorism and ambivalence towards
GCC’s action against Iran had muddled its ties with GCC members. In a bid to
ameliorate, GCC members, Pakistan’s Raheel Sharif agreed to head the Saudi
alliance to fight IS last month. But killings of UAE diplomats by Taliban had
widened the rift. Deplorable remarks by Pakistani lobbyists on Indo-UAE
bonhomie, trending twitter trolls, invariably suggests that Modi’s active
Middle East engagement perhaps touched raw nerves of our Western neighbor.
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