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UAE, India agree to foster cultural, educational links

Addressing the first Middle East Hindi Conference that got under way at the Indian Embassy, Shaikh Nahyan said that during his interaction with the Indian ambassador C.M. Bhandari, both agreed to promote the study of India-Arab relations and that of the history and culture of India and the Arab world.

"We should do more to further dialogue and mutual understanding of the age-old links between our two civilisations," he said.

Some of the initiatives, he said, may include starting a linguistics research programme that will bring together scholars from India and the UAE to study the ties between Arabic and Indian languages and help build relations between scholars and centres of linguistics in the region and the world.

Another initiative includes the establishment of an 'Arab-India Forum' to further dialogue and cooperation in the areas of culture and arts as well as science and technology, Shaikh Nahyan said.

''The real issue before you today is the teaching of Hindi language in a world of globalisation and as global educators, you are wise enough to understand that you represent a dynamic intersection of ethnic culture and tradition with international education and global issues,'' he told the participants.

In his welcome address, Indian ambassador C.M. Bhandary referred to the ancient Vedic literature that explored the origins of the universe and added that a child's development is incomplete without knowledge of the mother tongue.

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