Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the UAE last weekend may have been short, but its impact is likely to be felt for decades to come.
Last weekend witnessed several multi-sectoral agreements being signed, pointing to a gear shift in bilateral relations between two rising middle powers in a fragmenting, multipolar world.
On the surface, Mr Modi’s eighth visit to the UAE in 12 years was another chapter in a relationship defined by familiarity and warmth – evident from his meeting with President Sheikh Mohamed – as well as one rooted in historical ties, the movement of people, and the flow of goods, energy and services.
The Arabian Gulf and the Indian subcontinent have traded, inter-married and influenced one another for centuries. The 4.3 million Indians who call the UAE home today happen to be only the latest expression of a civilisational connection that long predates the two nation states.
But to understand this relationship through the lenses of history and diaspora alone is to overlook its ongoing evolution into a genuinely strategic partnership.
Energy co-operation featured prominently during Mr Modi’s visit, with Adnoc concluding a deal with Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited under which the UAE will enhance its participation in India’s strategic petroleum reserves. The two countries also agreed to work together to establish strategic gas reserves in India. Furthermore, Adnoc formalised an arrangement with Indian Oil Corporation on long-term LPG supplies.
The timing is significant given the turbulence of global commodity markets and the security pressures as an outcome of the Iran war, with India condemning both Tehran’s repeated strikes on the UAE and its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. What was notable, however, was the broader framework within which these energy conversations took place.
Defence co-operation, technology transfer, digital infrastructure, logistics corridors and food security are all part of a bilateral agenda whose scope would have seemed ambitious only a few years ago. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, signed in 2022, provides a formal structure to those long-held ambitions.
The two countries’ shared vision for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor signals something even more strategic: a joint desire to reshape an aspect of global trade, and not just participate in it. That ambition is linked to what is, perhaps, the most important thread running through both Emirati and Indian foreign policies: an emphasis on maintaining strategic balance through a policy of multi-alignment.
In a time of intensifying US-China competition, India’s hosting of the most recent Brics summit and Mr Modi’s simultaneous outreach to capitals across Europe – a continent he is currently on a multi-nation tour of – are expressions of this philosophy. The UAE, for its part, has spent years cultivating relations with capitals around the world, including both Washington and Beijing.
This policy of multi-alignment is borne out of a clear-eyed understanding of the multipolar world we live in. And in this era of multipolarity, middle powers like the UAE and India are discovering that they can shape outcomes in ways previously reserved for great powers alone.
As the world evolves, inevitably so do relationships between countries. UAE-India ties are not an exception to this rule; in fact, they even provide the ideal case study for how bilateral relations should progress in order to meet the geopolitical and geoeconomic challenges of the time.
