India PM Modi to visit UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the UAE today.
Following his attendance at the G7 Summit in Germany, Modi will be visiting Abu Dhabi to pay his condolences on the passing of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Gulf nation’s former president. This is in recognition of the warm relations between the two countries. The UAE hosts a significant Indian diaspora of 3.4 million expatriates, who comprise 35% of the country’s population. The two countries also have a Free Trade Agreement that came into force in May 2022 and are making increasing efforts to deepen military cooperation in areas such as maritime security and AI. This visit also comes ahead of the I2U2 Summit with Israel and the US, which the UAE’s ambassador to India previously referred to as the “West Asian Quad.”
Expect that this visit will prompt reciprocal visits by UAE leaders to India to further deepen bilateral relations and cooperation. In the long run, given India’s close ties with Israel—and the 2020 normalization of Israel-UAE relations—expect that India will begin playing a greater role as an interlocutor for cooperation in the Middle East, likely with support from the US.
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