India, UAE in talks to strengthen business ties | Latest News India

NEW DELHI: UAE Ambassador Abdulnasser Jamal Alshaali said that India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are conducting technical discussions to finalize the rupee-dirham trade arrangement to strengthen commercial ties following the signing of the free trade agreement.

Alshaali said in an interview that the UAE is keen to review bilateral flight arrangements to help bring down ticket prices. Space, defence, food and energy security, pharmaceuticals and healthcare are areas the two countries will focus on within the framework of last year’s Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to boost trade, he said.

Responding to comments by Pakistani Prime Minister Sheikh Baz Sharif about asking the UAE to help build a bridge with India, Al Shah Ali said his country “has played such a role in the past” but future efforts in this regard will depend on India and India. Pakistan.

Asked about the progress of the rupee-dirham arrangement, Alshaali replied: “Technical dialogue is ongoing. There has been an agreement between the two countries to resolve a certain (quantity) of trade… (This) is technical. There is an ongoing dialogue at the level and how they can proceed. We also have remittance facilities to make it more immediate and easier. There are still some technical issues that need to be discussed and agreed upon.”

With non-oil bilateral trade currently at $44 billion and the two countries setting a target of $100 billion for 2027, Alshaali said the UAE wanted to invest in sectors important to both countries. “We want to make sure that air links are expanded, we want to invest in food safety and in turn invest in food park projects in different states,” he said.

Against the backdrop of the UAE’s long-running calls to review bilateral flight arrangements, Alshaali said both sides had “exhausted” their entitlements and needed more flights and more destinations in India to drive down airfares.

“Emirates has run out, Air India has run out, and you can see that in the prices. If you look at the airfares today, it’s more than 50% higher than it was a few years ago… that’s already an issue for us. Market signals to watch out for because we’re talking about the whole relationship and aviation is a key point in expanding that,” he said.

Requests from the UAE to fly to other Indian destinations are ongoing. “…India’s aviation industry has been going through privatization. There are various agreements going on, we understand that, but it’s important for both markets, otherwise I don’t see how the price would be down because it’s a simple matter of supply and demand,” he added.

Under the new India-Israel-UAE-US or I2U2 group, the UAE is looking to invest in food parks and renewable energy projects in Gujarat to boost food security in the country.

“The Gujarat government shared a proposal on specific food commodities and their production levels with (holding company) ADQ during the I2U2 business forum in Abu Dhabi last week. Between ADQ and officials of Gujarat There was also a dialogue,” Alshaali said.

The UAE is also concerned about the complementarity between its COP28 presidency and India’s G20 presidency, especially with regard to renewable energy. The UAE is one of the nine guest countries invited by India to participate in the G20.

“As far as COP28 is concerned, our main focus right now is how we can find areas of cooperation and expand the areas of overlap between the G20 and COP28 presidencies. We support the Indian presidency…Obviously, we can also count on India’s presence in the COP28 presidency support,” Alshaali said.

Asked about reports that the UAE helped ease tensions between India and Pakistan during the 2019 Pulwama crisis and Prime Minister Sharif’s remarks about seeking UAE help to bring the two countries to the negotiating table, Alshaali said: “So our relationship is Two-way, right? We’ve played that role in the past, but again it’s going to be up to both countries and whether they want us to.”