‘uae WoRks closely WiTh iNdia oN people desigNaTed as TeRRoRisTs’
UAE Ambassador to India, Ahmed Al Banna says that a good chemistry between the leaders of the two countries has triggered a great cooperation.
We are honoured and grateful that his highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, has received invitation from the Government of India to be the chief guest on Republic Day of India on 26 January 2017. The bilateral relationship between UAE and India has taken a different track. You mentioned the visit of Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi in August 2015, followed by the visit of his Highness the Crown Prince in February 2016. Those two visits put our relations on a different track, more of a strategic track. The relationship at various traditional levels has always existed but since these visits we have shifted to more of a strategic relationship. I think this relationship will be fruitful and beneficial to both UAE and India. So far, we have 16 agree- ments signed between the two countries. The main pillars of the agreements like avoidance of double taxation, protection of investment, aviation, cyber security, currency swap... These agreements will be crowned by the major agreement that will be signed on 25 January 2017 and that is the strategic agreement between the two countries.
There will be exchange of information, security, defence, counter terrorism, cooperation in the fields of renewable energy, cooperation in the field of aero space, cooperation in the field of research and development and the IT industry. The prospects are huge and immense. The governments are working to facilitate interaction between our private sectors, between the institutions. I really think since the visit of our Crown Prince, lots of things have happened. Things have taken place that were even beyond my imagination at certain times. The chemistry between our leaders had triggered this great cooperation. If we look at the bilateral trade figures between UAE and India 30 years ago, the total trade between UAE and India was 128 million USD. In 2016, the figures are 50 billion USD. India is the number one trading partner for the United Arab Emirates. We are the third largest trading partner for India after USA and China.
We have a huge Indian community living in the Arab Emirates, around 2.8 million people. They have become a part of our progress and a part of where we have reached. We really appreciate that. As I mentioned that the traditional relationship has always been there.
Oil and gas is one of the main sectors that top the list. There are other sectors that we are working closely with India on, for example, air space technology, renewable energy. And I hope by the involvement of those sectors, the figures will rise and add value to the existing relationship that we have with India. I offer my condolences to the family members of those officials from UAE who passed away in this horrible attack. We condemn these terrorist acts and we work very closely with many different countries all over the world including India. I don’t think it has any link to the Crown Prince’s visit. Our relationship... nobody dictates on us what we do and what we don’t. Our relationship has been great with India and we will not change our minds and decisions. That attack on our diplomats, who were involved in humanitarian work in the city of Kandahar, was a cowardly act by some group of people.
We are still looking and investigating. We are working very closely with the Afghan authorities to find out who is behind this act of terrorism. between the NSAs of India and UAE and there has been a lot of cooperation in trying to stop the acts of terrorism, to stop those individuals who support fanatics and groups that have been pronounced by the international community as illegal groups. We try and we work very hard with the Indian authorities to stop such actions. their growth.
If you look at the composition of Daesh, there is a limited percentage of people from the Arab world or Muslims. The majority are non-Arab and non-Muslim. This is something that the international community has become aware of. That’s why you see a lot action has been taken against this Daesh group and, of course, led by the international coalition and the US. evil thinking... the ones who have gone off track. Therefore, regardless of who leads, we need to look at the main goal. Terrorism and acts of terrorism are discussed and talked on many different levels, bilateral, multilateral, UN and regional umbrellas. We need to coordinate our efforts and we do coordinate our efforts with India.
So far, we have 16 agreements signed between the two countries. The main pillars of the agreements are avoidance of double taxation, protection of investment, aviation, cyber security and currency swap.