India, Israel, the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are set to build on the momentum created by the Abraham Accords by holding the first virtual meeting of their foreign ministers on Monday.
The meeting, described in some quarters as a “new Quad”, will be joined by external affairs minister S Jaishankar, Israeli foreign minister Yair Lapid from Jerusalem, US secretary of state Antony Blinken from Washington and UAE foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan from Abu Dhabi. Jaishankar is currently on a visit to Israel.
India, Israel and the UAE have already stepped up trilateral cooperation, especially in trade and investment, since the US brokered the Abraham Accords between the two West Asian countries in August 2020. This meeting will be the first to bring the four countries together on a common platform.
The meeting also dovetails with India’s efforts to build new plurilateral and multilateral partnerships focused on cooperation in areas ranging from security to connectivity and energy. India has robust defence, security and trade cooperation with Israel and the US, while the UAE is a key energy partner. The UAE is also home to more than three million Indians, and security cooperation has been growing rapidly, with the first-ever visit by an Indian Army chief taking place last year.
There was no official word from the four countries for the agenda of Monday’s meeting.
{{/usCountry}}There was no official word from the four countries for the agenda of Monday’s meeting.
{{/usCountry}}India has backed the Abraham Accords process, following which Israel also normalised relations with Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. The external affairs ministry has said these efforts are in line with India’s support for “peace and stability in West Asia which is our extended neighbourhood”.
In May this year, India, Israel and the UAE concluded the first trilateral partnership whereby an Israel-based company will be producing a robotic solar cleaning technology in India for a project in the UAE.
A statement issued at the time by the Israeli embassy in New Delhi said the Abraham Accords agreement between Israel and the UAE had “paved the way for friendships and business partnerships across the region”. The statement added, “India being a friend of both the UAE and Israel is clearly the preferred partner to leverage the global potential of the UAE, Israel and India trilateral.”