UAE Sides With India in Fight Against Terrorism

After the recent release of Jamaatud-Dawa chief and Mumbai attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed by Pakistan, the UAE on Tuesday said it stood with India in the fight against terrorism and also against individuals who have been designated as ‘terrorist’ by the UN.

“We denounce terrorism, we denounce extremism. We work very closely with India, with many different countries in the world, to counter-attack all those organisations that have been listed either by the UN or by some other countries or our own country as terrorist organisation and extremist organisation, and we work together to fight those organisations,” UAE’s ambassador to India Ahmed Al Banna said.

“This is significant because Mr Saeed has been designated an international terrorist by both the UN and the US. “We exchange information and have created a mechanism in terms of dissemination of information and its exchange,” Mr Al Banna said in response to a question at a media briefing here. On India-UAE economic ties, Al Banna said his country has committed $75 billion to India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and of this, $1 billion was transferred two months ago.

Official sources said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit UAE in February 2018 to attend the World Government Summit where India will be the guest of honour.