10 Times Bigger Than Pak–Saudi Deal, India–UAE Plan What Islamabad Can Only Dream Of

New Delhi: A small meeting held in Delhi on Monday gave a big message to the diplomacy of South Asia. UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan had come to India for a few hours, but the decisions of this visit proved to have a far-reaching impact. At the time when Pakistan was calling the $20 billion agreement with Saudi Arabia a big success, India and the UAE had set a target of taking mutual trade to $200 billion.

Why did India and Pakistan start being compared?

The Pakistan government recently announced a trade and investment target of $20 billion with Saudi Arabia. But the ground reality is that the trade between the two countries is currently only around 6 billion dollars. Islamabad is having to make long efforts even for the initial investment of $5 billion. On the other hand, India and UAE have already crossed the trademark of 100 billion dollars, and now work has started on the plan to double it.

What was decided in that one-and-a-half-hour meeting?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had reached the airport to meet the UAE President. After this, limited-time talks were held at the Prime Minister's residence, in which concrete decisions were taken on future partnerships.

According to government officials, after the CEPA agreement was signed in 2022, trade between the two countries has increased rapidly. Now the focus is on ensuring that small and medium Indian businessmen also get the benefit of this partnership and can deliver their products to West Asia, Africa and Europe.

What will the money be used for?

India and UAE have chosen the path of direct investment instead of loans. There is a plan to build a new airport, smart township and modern port in the Dholera region of Gujarat. Apart from this, joint work will also be done in areas like space technology, satellite manufacturing, nuclear energy, artificial intelligence and data centers.

Even in the defense sector, both countries will no longer be limited to just buying weapons but will move towards manufacturing them together.

Is this difference only of money or of thinking also?

Experts say that the difference is not just of money, but also of intentions and trust. Pakistan's target of $20 billion is still on paper and a major part of it is debt.

Whereas India and the UAE's target of $200 billion has already been set on a strong trade basis. India and UAE have the capacity to invest the same amount of $5 billion, which Pakistan has been trying for months to get, in a single project.

What did the UAE president say?

While returning from India, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed said that the meeting with Prime Minister Modi was very positive. He expressed confidence that both the countries will move forward together in new areas of technology, trade and development in the coming years and the people of both the countries will directly benefit from this.