India not immune to Daesh threat, says UAE

Abu Dhabi - 'We need greater cooperation and zero tolerance for any sort of extremism, terrorism in order to confront the threat'

Warning that India is not immune to the threat from Daesh, the UAE, which has deported about a dozen Indians with suspected links to the terror group, said today that its anti-terror cooperation with India is going to get "more institutionalised".
"There are no grey areas. We need to tackle this (Daesh) threat and nobody is immune. If you think you are immune (and) you are going to be negligent, you are going to be hit. Everybody.... whether India or the UAE," Dr Anwar Mohammed Gargash, UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said here. 
Ahead of the three day visit of His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Gargash told NDTV in an interview that strengthening bilateral cooperation against terrorism would be an important component of the royal visit.
Bilateral cooperation on terror was "working very well" and in the coming 12 months "it will be more institutionalised and work even better," he said in the backdrop of the Gulf nation having deported to India a dozen Indians with suspected links to Daesh in recent months.
Such cooperation was an important part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's discussions with the UAE leadership during his visit here in August, Gargash said.
Underlining the threat posed by Daesh, the minister said, "no country was immune, no city is immune..... We need greater cooperation and zero tolerance for any sort of extremism, terrorism in order to confront this threat.
Describing Indo-UAE ties as "fantastic", the minister said that Modi's visit could see a"window of strategic shift" inthe relationship. Modi was a verypractical person and everybodywas impressed with his 'can-do' attitude.
"This is what we wantto build on."He underlined the commitment of the UAE, whose current investments in India are about $10 billion, to step up the investments, particularly in infrastructure.
Turning to problems faced by investors in India, Dr Gargash said, "we need to work together to cut some of the red tape, (and) make things smoother". "I want to see clearer laws, smoother implementation, greater reception of foreign investments, not just UAE investment but foreign investment in general," he said. There is a huge potential in bilateral economic ties but that has to be "unlocked".