Dubai Crown Prince to visit India on April 8-9 to bolster trade, strategic ties
Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum of Dubai will visit India on April 8-9 to enhance trade and strategic ties with the UAE.
NEW DELHI: The Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, will visit India during April 8-9 with a high-level delegation to bolster trade and strategic relations between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Sheikh Hamdan, who is also the deputy prime minister and defence minister of the UAE, will travel to India months after a visit to New Delhi last September by Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Khaled bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is effectively next in line for the leadership of the emirates. This reflects the growing strategic ties between the two sides.
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The Crown Prince, who is visiting at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be accompanied by several ministers, senior government officials and a business delegation. This will be his first official visit to India as the Crown Prince of Dubai.
On Tuesday, Modi will host a working lunch for Sheikh Hamdan, the external affairs ministry said. Sheikh Hamdan will also meet external affairs minister S Jaishankar and defence minister Rajnath Singh.
Sheikh Hamdan will also travel to Mumbai, where he will participate in a business roundtable with captains of industry from both sides. The interaction will strengthen India-UAE economic and commercial cooperations in traditional and futuristic areas, the ministry said.
Dubai has traditionally played an important role in India’s commercial, cultural and people-to-people exchanges with the UAE. A majority of India’s 4.3-million diaspora in the UAE live and work in Dubai.
Sheikh Hamdan’s visit will further solidify the India-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership and strengthen the multifaceted ties with Dubai, the ministry said.
After the India-UAE comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) came into force in 2022, two-way trade grew to almost $85 billion in FY23. The UAE is India’s third largest trade partner, after the US and China, and India’s second-largest export destination.
India is also the UAE’s second-largest trade partner, accounting for 9% of its total foreign trade and 14% of non-oil exports.
According to official estimates, the value of the UAE’s non-oil trade with India is expected to increase to more than $100 billion over the next five years. The UAE is the seventh largest investor in India, with cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows of $16.67 billion from April 2000 to September 2023.