UAE Ambassador Alshaali vows strong ties with India

UAE's ambassador to India, Abdulnasser Jamal Alshaali, on Thursday (Sep 4), vowed strong ties with India as both countries firm up ties in several areas. The oil-rich West Asian country, on the path to rapid modernisation, has emerged as a key partner of India, with a focus on several areas and high-level visits.Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited the United Arab Emirates (UAE) around 6 times since 2014.

The ambassador said, ties are always doing great, betterthings that are happening. We have interactions happening between officials of the 2 countries". He pointed out that work is being done in various sectors like defence, space, supercomputing, data centres, and genome sequencing, which will "always be the case between the 2 countries". He emphasises that both countries are "doing sports-related stuff, defence, space and other areas"

From the UAE, there have been multiple visits by President Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. In 2016 and 2017, he visited as the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. In Sep 2023, he visited India as the President of the UAE to attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit. In November 2023, President MBZ participated in the 2nd Virtual Global South Summit.

The UAE embassy celebrated "Milad", celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birth which involves prayers, cultural events honouring his life and teachings. The ambassador pointed out thatthe celebrations at the embassy are "part of what we do. We celebrate Milad, we also celebrate Diwali, Iftar, Holi. Great cultural and spiritual connection. If you see the audiencehere, people are here to celebrate. This is how things should be and always should be".

Not only cultural connections, but India and UAE have strong diaspora linkage. The Indian expatriate community of approximately 3.5 million is the largest ethnic community in the UAE, constituting roughly about 35 per cent of the country’s population. 15% of the diaspora is in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the rest in 6 Northern Emirates, including Dubai.