PM Modi will visit this country for the seventh time, where no Prime Minister has visited this country since Indira Gandhi

PM Modi UAE Visit: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to the UAE from today (Tuesday). When the Prime Minister is going to the UAE on February 13 and 14, it should be noted that this will be his seventh visit to the UAE after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014. Apart from this, the Prime Minister is going to this Middle East country for the third time in the last 8 months.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister will meet the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Looking at the current events in the world, both the countries will try to give a new edge to the bilateral relations. If the government statements are to be believed, the diplomatic partnership between the two countries will have in-depth and extensive discussions on regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Apart from the President, Prime Minister Modi will also meet the UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Defense Minister. The Prime Minister will also attend the World Government Summit in Dubai and deliver a speech afterwards. After Dubai, the Prime Minister's program is Abu Dhabi. Here he will inaugurate Abu Dhabi's first Hindu temple BAPS. Another program of his here is also to address the Indian community.

India-UAE: Business, Investment, People

India-UAE relationship rests on political, cultural and economic issues. Bilateral trade is the strongest basis of India-UAE proximity. Looking at the official figures for 2020-23, trade between India and UAE was around 85 billion US dollars.

This is a business partnership. UAE is also important for India as they remain among the top 4 countries for FDI investments in India during 2022-23. An estimated 35 lakh Indian community resides in the United Arab Emirates. The Indian community is the largest tourist group in the UAE. A Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed between the two countries in February 2022. It is considered as a touchstone in relationships.

From Indira Gandhi to Modi

A solid foundation of India-UAE relations was laid in 1976 by the then President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed. He went to UAE then. Even then in 2003 and 2010 the then President went on an official visit to the UAE. But nothing special was noticed about this trend regarding the Prime Minister.

Indira Gandhi went to UAE in May 1981 when she was Prime Minister. After that, no Prime Minister visited the UAE for the next three and a half decades. After Prime Minister Modi became the Prime Minister, relations with UAE started afresh.

Prime Minister will visit UAE twice in 2015, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023 and now in early 2024. In this way, Prime Minister Modi has visited the UAE a total of 7 times in his tenure of ten years. Apart from the UAE, the Prime Minister's visit will also cover Qatar. Qatar has recently pardoned the sentences of 8 Indians.

India-UAE relationship: a challenge

It is good that India-UAE relations have strengthened over the past decade, but there are also some challenges between the two countries. First- China's growing economic influence with UAE has always been a threat to India and in recent years as China has started extending low interest loans to the entire region especially UAE through its check book diplomacy, it will be a big challenge for India to fight this.

Secondly, the kafala system of UAE is also criticized a lot. This arrangement in the United Arab Emirates, which is an employer employer, gives more power to their laborers and employees. Due to this, serious accusations of human rights violations continue to be made on UAE. Since there are a large number of Indian workers, this concern is to a large extent associated with the Indian. Apart from this, it will be very important for India-UAE to strike a balance in relations between UAE's massive aid to Pakistan and regional conflicts.