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Senior officials from the United States and India, israel and united arab emirates A meeting of the so-called I2U2 panel was held in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, focusing on economic development and food security amid global climate change.
The meeting was chaired by UAE Minister of State Ahmed Sayeq; U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jose Fernandez; Indian Ministry of External Affairs Joint Secretary Dam Ravi; Israeli Foreign Ministry Director-General Ronen Levy.
“I2U2 provides a new regional platform to deepen economic integration and shape the affirmative action agenda in the Middle East, Asia and beyond,” Fernandez said today in Abu Dhabi. “It serves as a model for fostering trusted regional partnerships that can create collaborative business opportunities and well-paying jobs.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, India backed the US-led food security initiative unveiled by President Joe Biden at the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021, Indian media reported. More than 40 countries have committed approximately US$ 8 billion to the Climate Agriculture Innovation Mission (AIM).
“We must all do our part and act urgently to address the climate change crisis,” Fernandez said today in Abu Dhabi. “We must ensure that the basic prerequisites for improved agricultural production are in place: good soil and crop varieties that are resilient to climate change .”
Also on Wednesday, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the UAE’s climate envoy, praised India’s goal of adding 500 gigawatts of clean energy over the next few years and raised the possibility of cooperation with the UAE.
background. The I2U2 group was formally formed during an October 2021 phone call between senior US diplomat Anthony Blinken and his Israeli, UAE and Indian counterparts.
Last July, the UAE’s Biden and Mohamed bin Zayed held a virtual meeting under the banner of I2U2, along with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Yar Lapid.
At that meeting, the leaders agreed to create an Israel-backed food corridor between the UAE and India amid a global wheat shortage caused by the war in Ukraine, and agreed that the UAE and Israel would support a $300 million clean energy project in India.
strategic imperative. The initiative comes as the United States seeks to counter China by creating strategic blocs of economic and security cooperation across continents.
In the Middle East, the Biden administration has sought to expand the Abraham Accords, under which the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco normalized relations with Israel in a U.S.-led effort to boost security in the region.
Analysts say the I2U2 forum further aligns the interests of the Middle East’s economic and defense powerhouses with those of India, which has the world’s fifth-largest economy (by GDP) and is set to overtake China in population this year.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, builds on the Trump administration’s revival of the George W. Bush-era Quadrangle Security Dialogue, or “Quad,” a strategic forum between Australia, Japan, India and the United States.
In a July 2021 article, Mohammed Soliman, a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, called for the creation of an “India-Abraham bloc,” suggesting that the I2U2 bloc could be expanded and linked to the G4 to enable The US is able to outflank China’s influence in the Middle East and South Asia – an area he calls “West Asia”.
“In my view, the perception of trade in Washington has shifted: Gone are the days when trade access to US markets was exchanged for geopolitical alignment with US foreign policy choices. The I2U2 business forum is no exception,” Soliman told Al-Monitor on Wednesday .
“That’s why I think I2U2 is closer in nature to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which seeks to enhance trade and technology cooperation between the US and some Indo-Pacific economies – including India – and is neither a formal trade agreement , nor provide market access.” “Integrating more countries—namely, Egypt and Saudi Arabia—into this geoeconomic and geopolitical framework will be a key element in its ability to economically transform West Asia,” Solley said. Mann said.
What’s next: The Biden administration aims to expand I2U2’s initial collaborations on food security and energy to eventually include technological innovation, including collaborations on the space program and semiconductor production, officials said.
“Our strategy is one of continued commitment and coordination. We’re already on that path,” Fernandez said today.
On the climate front, the UAE will host this year’s COP28 climate summit, following last year’s Egypt.
learn more: read Review by Salim Essaid The GCC countries have decided to remain neutral amid international pressure, led by the United States, over Russia’s war on Ukraine.
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