India, UAE agree on defence partnership, civil nuke collaboration

India and the United Arab Emirates today (19 January) agreed to look at a strategic defence pact and explore bilateral collaboration in civil nuclear sectors as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with visiting UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan laying out a broad agenda to shore up ties.

Modi welcomed Al Nahyan at the Delhi airport with a hug and then the two leaders travelled in the same vehicle to the prime minister's residence where they held talks in the restricted as well as delegation-level formats.

The UAE president was in Delhi for about four hours and Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told the media "this has been a short but extremely substantive visit."

India and the UAE decided to explore a partnership in advanced nuclear technologies, including development of large nuclear reactors and small modular reactors as well as cooperation in advanced reactor systems and nuclear power plant operations, he said.

A long-term agreement for the supply of 0.5 million tonnes of Liquefied Natural Gas annually was also concluded today by the two sides. The UAE is India's second-largest supplier of LNG to India after Qatar.

Artificial intelligence was identified as a priority area of cooperation and it was decided to collaborate on setting up a supercomputing cluster in India with the UAE partnership, Misri said, adding that the Gulf nation will also look at investments for expanding data centre capacities in India.

The foreign secretary said the two sides also set a target of $200 billion in annual trade by 2032. The volume of two-way trade between the two sides was $84 billion in 2023-24.

The two sides also resolved to significantly expand their defence ties and a letter of intent was signed between the two sides to work towards concluding a framework agreement for a strategic defence partnership between India and the UAE, Misri said.

Another letter of intent was also signed for joint work in developing space infrastructure. Under this initiative, both sides will look to set up new launch complexes, satellite fabrication facilities, joint missions, space academy and training centres, he said.

The foreign secretary said the situation in Yemen, Gaza and Iran was discussed at the talks but declined to elaborate.

"All of these issues were discussed between the leaders. I cannot get into the details at this stage, but yes, both leaders had the opportunity to share their views and opinions in detail on these issues," he said.

Misri said Modi and Al Nahyan unequivocally condemned cross-border terrorism and held that the perpetrators, supporters and financiers of all acts of terrorism must be brought to justice.