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A concerted effort by India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States to stimulate trade is gaining momentum.
Under the banner of the so-called I2U2 initiative, business leaders from four countries signed a memorandum of understanding on Wednesday pledging to collaborate in the project’s six target areas: water, energy, transport, health, food security and space.
The heads of the UAE-India Business Council, the UAE-Israel Business Council and the US-UAE Business Council met at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington DC and approved a document calling for private sector participation in the partnership, following up on the I2U2 Business Forum in February Held in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Faizal Kottikollan, president of the Council of India, said in a statement that he was “committed to rallying support among our members for this small multilateral agreement by signing this memorandum of understanding.” His Israel Foreign Minister Dorian Barrack said the four-way initiative was “becoming an important pillar of regional economic integration”.
The I2U2 group — a combination of the initials of four countries — was formed in 2021 as an outgrowth of the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco. It received a high-level boost during President Biden’s visit to the Middle East last July, when he visited Jerusalem and met with then-Israel Prime Minister Lapid. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE leader and current President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan joined them in their home country videoconferencing and launched the I2U2 initiative.
Among the activities planned by the Business Council, the I2U2 initiative is being promoted through a series of events in the four member states aimed at stimulating business investment, according to their joint statement. The council intends to commission a series of papers from think tanks, academics and thought leaders exploring business opportunities in six target areas. These will be supplemented by recorded video interviews available on the website and other platforms.
U.S. Under-Secretary of State for Economics, Growth, Energy and the Environment Jose Fernandez joined St. Regis Council leaders; Yousef Al Otaiba, UAE Ambassador to the U.S.; Deputy Chief of Mission of India to the U.S. Sripriya Ranganathan and Eliav Benjamin, Deputy Chief of Mission of Israel to the United States
The first project announced after a videoconference in July was the UAE’s $2 billion investment to develop a series of food parks across India that will use Israeli and American technology to reduce food waste, conserve fresh water and use renewable energy. The second project, a hybrid renewable energy scheme in the Indian state of Gujarat, aims to generate 300 megawatts of wind and solar power and a battery system to store the energy.
Danny Sebright, Chairman of the US-UAE Business Council, said at the meeting that I2U2 “is a unique partnership of key stakeholders that will undoubtedly bring value to the business community and our collective membership in all four countries. ”
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