What the Republic Day honour means

On January 26, when the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the deputy supreme commander of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, sets foot on Rajpath as chief guest at the Republic Day parade, it will be yet another affirmation of the momentum India-UAE bilateral ties have gathered in the last year-and-a-half.

In inviting the crown prince, New Delhi has made it clear that it’s willing to give the long-standing tradition of having only a head of state or government as chief guest the go-by in order to forge deeper and stronger ties with the Gulf nation. Indeed, in keeping with the fresh trajectory of bilateral relations which now have a substantial strategic content, India and the UAE are expected to ink a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement during the visit of the crown prince.

Bilateral ties received a fillip after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Gulf nation in August 2015. In doing so, he became the first Indian Prime Minister to set foot on UAE soil in 34 years. Rather unusually for diplomacy, the crown prince came on a state visit just six months after Modi’s UAE trip. And now, he’ll be on his second visit to India in less than a year.

Traditionally, India has had close and friendly relations with the Gulf nation which is also home to a 2.6 million-strong Indian diaspora — it’s the largest among the Gulf countries. It’s a diaspora that sends home remittances worth billions each year. For instance, in 2013, Indian expatriates sent home remittances worth $15 billion. Yet, no Indian Prime Minister had visited the Gulf nation in the decades since Indira Gandhi went there in 1981. The relationship following Indira Gandhi’s visit remained close but it was trade and commerce including oil trade that remained the focus.

Bilateral trade has increased from $180 million annually in the 1970s to $50 billion at present. India is now the UAE’s number one trading partner while the UAE is India’s third largest trading partner, trailing only China and the US.

However, even as trade ties flourished, the two countries were unable to set a similar pace in the political and strategic arena. The current fillip in ties is clearly driven by New Delhi’s need to secure its economic and geo-strategic interests in the Gulf region. It is for this reason that the strategic aspect is acquiring increasing salience in the relationship with a country that’s playing a major role in the politics of West Asia.

The initiation of the strategic dialogue, the first of which was held in New Delhi on January 20, days ahead of the crown prince’s visit and the move to sign a strategic partnership pact are part of the growing congruence of interests.

The strategic element encompasses security and defence ties and cooperation in the maritime domain, cyber security as well as the energy sector. The UAE with its large crude oil reserves has been a reliable partner in meeting India’s energy needs.

The two countries have already agreed that the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) will participate in the setting up of a strategic petroleum reserve in India.

On the bilateral trade front, India and the UAE have set themselves the target of achieving a 60 per cent increase in the next five years. With many parts of the Arab world faced with turmoil, sectarian conflict and the emergence of ISIS/Daesh, the UAE is looking beyond the region to push its economic and commercial interests.

The Modi government, in turn, has invited the UAE to “be a partner in India’s growth story” and play a role in mega industrial manufacturing projects such as the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor. Well aware of their shared economic interests, India and the UAE have already declared that they “have the potential to build a transformative economic partnership”.

The UAE has investments worth $8 billion in India of which $4.03 billion is by way of FDI as of March 2016. In turn, Indian investments in the UAE are around $50 billion.

Huge investments in India’s infrastructure development are expected from the UAE after the two countries agreeing to set up a UAE-India Infrastructure Investment Fund. Under this, the Gulf nation will invest $75 billion in India over a period of 10 years for building roads, railways, ports, etc.

India will, however, need to ensure not just expeditious framing of rules and policies terms for this investment but also ensure it sticks to its own commitments.

It’s the implementation of the strategic template first enunciated in the joint statement during Modi’s visit to the UAE — it includes upgrading security and defence cooperation — that will be crucial and closely watched. The statement noted the “shared threats to peace, stability and security in the region”, pointing to the growing threat of ISIS as well as the sectarianism roiling the Gulf region.

The UAE has been extremely concerned about the rise of ISIS and believes that a strong international alliance is needed to prevent this radical group from spreading its tentacles farther.

India and the UAE have also agreed to enhance cooperation in counter-terrorism and intelligence sharing. Reflective of the growing synergy in security ties was the UAE’s swift condemnation of the terror strikes in Pathankot and Uri last year. The fact that India charged Pakistan with perpetrating them did not deter the UAE, with whom it has had close ties, from coming out in India’s support.

Indeed, New Delhi has got the UAE to back it on its charges of Pak-sponsored terrorism targeting India in the joint statements issued during the visits of Modi and the crown prince to each other’s country. The statement during the visit of the crown prince condemned the use of “terrorism as (an) instrument of state policy” while stating that it was the “responsibility of all states to control the activities of the so-called ‘non-state’ actors”.

The recent killing of five of the Gulf nation’s diplomats in a terror strike in Kandahar and the suspicion that the Taliban which has Pak backing could be behind the attack threatens to create fissures in UAE-Pak relations. India needs to seize the opportunity to tighten its strategic clinch with the UAE.

India has done well in stepping up its engagement with the UAE in all spheres. But it will need to ensure its delivers on its promises and commitments so that the two nations are able to “build a partnership for the 21st century”.

The writer is a senior journalist