India’s economic and energy ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the welfare of the four-million-strong Indian community figured in external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s meetings with the top leadership of the emirates, including President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and foreign minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Jaishankar is the second Indian minister to travel to West Asia, after petroleum minister Hardeep Puri’s visit to Qatar, amid a two-week ceasefire in the Iran-US conflict to shore up energy security and assess the security situation in the region that is a crucial supplier of oil and gas.
On Sunday, Jaishankar met President Mohamed bin Zayed and conveyed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s message and India’s appreciation for looking after the Indian community in the UAE “during this very difficult period”. He met Abdullah bin Zayed, who is also the deputy prime minister, on Saturday evening and discussed the “evolving regional situation and its implications”, according to a social media post.
“We’ve had a very intense conflict in this region. Obviously, India has very major stakes and a very big interest in the stability and security of this region,” Jaishankar told ANI news agency after the meetings. “I’m very pleased to have an opportunity to come here, sit down directly [and] express our interests and…share the feedback of the Indian community.”
Jaishankar said the interests of the Indian community were “first and foremost” in his discussions with the UAE leadership, though the talks also focused on other aspects of the bilateral relationship, such as economic and energy ties.
{{/usCountry}}Jaishankar said the interests of the Indian community were “first and foremost” in his discussions with the UAE leadership, though the talks also focused on other aspects of the bilateral relationship, such as economic and energy ties.
{{/usCountry}}Both the UAE and Qatar are crucial energy suppliers, and the ministerial visits were an opportunity to assess the impact of the West Asia conflict on energy infrastructure in both countries. The UAE is India’s fifth-largest source for fuel, accounting for almost 6% of total crude imports, and the third-largest source of LPG and petroleum products.
Qatar is India’s largest supplier of both LNG (11.19 million metric tonnes worth $6.39 billion in 2024-25) and LPG (4.89 million metric tonnes worth $3.21 billion in 2024-25).
A readout from the UAE foreign minister’s office said Abdullah bin Zayed and Jaishankar discussed the “repercussions of the brutal and terrorist Iranian missile attacks” that targeted the emirates and several other friendly countries. They also discussed developments following the announcement of a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the US and strategic relations between the UAE and India, the readout said without giving details.
Senior Iranian and US officials held their first face-to-face talks in Islamabad even as Jaishankar was in the UAE, though the negotiations lasting 21 hours ended without any breakthrough.