UAE, India to take ties to new heights

Abu Dhabi - Delhi has a key role in resolving regional issues, says Mohammed bin Zayed.

abu dhabi - The UAE is looking forward to scale friendly ties with India to new, ambitious heights at all levels, His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, said on Sunday.
During a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Shaikh Mohammed said: "The UAE, under the leadership of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is pursuing and promoting Shaikh Zayed's approach through diversified, excellent ties that serve all economic, developmental, trade, cultural and political sectors."
Shaikh Mohammed welcomed the Indian prime minister and his accompanying delegation, expressing his delight at the visit, which, he said, comes within the context of the distinguished historic, friendly bilateral ties whose foundation was laid down by the late founding father, Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan based on mutual trust, close friendship and mutual interests which, in turn, culminated into a strong partnership.
Shaikh Mohammed added: "Your interest in visiting the UAE is a true expression of the bonds of friendship and fruitful bilateral cooperation as well as the common vision towards a wide range of regional and international issues. We also share with you this interest, given your country's important role in international politics and global economic growth."
The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi affirmed the UAE's commitment to promoting the values of tolerance, coexistence, fostering understanding, dialogue and openness to other cultures and seeking inter-nation rapprochement and cooperation.
India, he stressed, has a key role and displays consistent dynamism towards international issues and the UAE would like to see India continuously engage with the international community in order to solve many problems that are significant to security, stability and development of the region.
The talks also tackled avenues of joint cooperation that serve mutual strategic interests and took stock of progress in areas of bilateral cooperation as well as means to further expand it.
Shaikh Mohammed highly valued the contributions of the resident Indian community to the development of many sectors in the UAE.
"The Indian community has made significant contributions in the process of building the country and development that the UAE is witnessing. It is a natural extension of age old bonds between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf."
Shaikh Mohammed welcomed efforts aimed at activating and taking joint economic and investment partnership to new sectors and strengthening strategic bonds, particularly in political domain, to realise the welfare of the two countries and their people.
He also stressed the importance of bolstering channels of communication and coordination for enhancing joint development programmes and discussing strategic projects that advance UAE-India ties.
"The Indian prime minister's visit to the UAE has significant importance in the light of the leaderships' keenness to push forward bilateral cooperation to new horizons that both countries and people aspire for," Shaikh Mohammed said.
As they exchanged views on a wide range of regional and international topics of mutual interest, the two sides emphasised their mutual desire to build more solid and robust ties. They also recognised that security and stability were two vital requirements in the region to help the engine of development and progress run its natural course. They also emphatically called on the international community to double its efforts aimed at realising peace, security, and coexistence among nations of the region.
The two countries also strongly condemned all forms and manifestations of extremism, violence and terrorism.
The meeting was attended by Shaikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Adviser and Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council; Lt. General Shaikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior; Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs; Shaikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court; Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister; Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy; Saqr bin Ghobash Saeed Ghobash, Minister of Labour; Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy; Ahmed Juma Al Za'abi, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs; Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouie, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court; Major General Eisa Saif Al Mazrouie, Deputy Chief of Staff of UAE Armed Forces, and a number of senior officials.
Present from the Indian side were Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser; Dr S. Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary; Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA); T.P. Seetharam, Ambassador of India to the UAE; Vikas Swarup, Joint Secretary (External Publicity), MEA; Thanglura Darlong, Joint Secretary (Gulf), MEA; Vivek Srivastava, Director, Special Protection Group; Jawed Ashraf, Joint Secretary to PM; Sanjeev Singla, Private Secretary to PM, and Dr Deepak Mittal, Director, Prime Minister's Office.

• India