PM Modi’s UAE visit pushed amid Omicron variant prep
The proposed January visit would have been the Prime Minister’s first foreign trip for 2022.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposed visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in early January has been put off because of concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
This would have been the Prime Minister’s first foreign trip for 2022, and he was expected to chart a course to take forward burgeoning relations between the two sides. India and the UAE will commemorate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties next year.
No official announcement was made regarding the visit by both countries, though it was expected that Modi would have been in the UAE on January 5-6. An unnamed official of the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi was quoted by Khaleej Times as saying that the visit has been put off.
“The visit has been postponed. But it has not been cancelled. It will happen soon,” the official said. He added that the visit will “happen sooner than later”.
The people cited above said the trip could be pushed back to February.
The UAE has rolled out new measures to control the possible spread of Covid-19, including mandatory RT-PCR tests on passengers arriving from countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Brazil and Russia, and random tests on travellers from other countries.
Covid-19 cases in the UAE have risen to the highest levels in the past six months, with 1,803 infections and two deaths recorded on Sunday. This marked a steep increase from the start of December, when daily cases had fallen to below 50.
The Prime Minister’s visit had been expected to focus on both deepening cooperation and looking for new areas for collaboration. Several agreements in different areas were likely to be signed during the visit.