New Delhi [India], July 1 : External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar received UAE Ambassador Abdulnasser Alshaali on Wednesday on a farewell call and thanked him for strengthening the bilateral ties between the two countries.
He also extended wishes to Ambassador Alshaali for his future endeavours.
"Pleased to receive the UAE Ambassador Dr. Abdulnasser Alshaali today on a farewell call. Thanked him for his efforts towards deepening the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Also wished him all the best in his future endeavours," Jaishankar posted on X.
https://x.com/DrSJaishankar/status/2072268329755296125?s=20
India and the UAE have traditionally strong, longstanding bilateral ties which gained a new momentum when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited in 2015, the first PM of India in 34 years, which marked the beginning of a new Comprehensive and Strategic partnership between the two countries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a brief.
The two partners share one of the oldest and most enduring commercial partnerships in the world.
Over the past decade, it has undergone a transformational shift, evolving from a traditional trade partnership into a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, spanning trade, investment, energy, technology and deep people-to-people bonds. Today, the two nations stand as each other's most valued economic partners in their respective regions, turning their relationship into a model for bilateral cooperation in the 21st century, the Embassy of India in the UAE noted on its website.
It further mentioned how India and the UAE strengthened their bilateral trade cooperation through the signing of a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in February 2022.
From USD 180 million annually in the 1970s, bilateral trade has reached its highest level of USD 101.25 billion in FY 2025-26. Today, the UAE ranks as India's third-largest trading partner and second-largest export destination, with exports exceeding US$ 37.35 billion in FY 2025-26. Meanwhile, India ranks as the UAE's second-largest trading partner.
During the official visit of Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of UAE, to India in January 2026, both sides agreed to double bilateral trade to US$ 200 billion by 2032. The visit also yielded a series of landmark agreements, including a long-term LNG supply deal between HPCL and ADNOC Gas, a Letter of Intent on investment cooperation for the Dholera Special Investment Region, and an MoU on food safety to facilitate agri-trade between the two nations.
The Embassy further underlined that bilateral defence cooperation between India and the UAE has been steadily growing in consonance with other domains of the bilateral relationship. It is steered through a Joint Defence Co-operation Committee (JDCC) at the Ministry level, with the signing of MoU on Defence Cooperation in June 2003. At Service HQ level, Service (Army, Naval and Air) Staff Talks are held annually to discuss security and defence cooperation avenues.