United Arab Emirates (UAE) recent assurance of increased investment in Jammu and Kashmir is a victory for India and a moral setback for Pakistan.
Deep socio-political and maritime bonds shared by the Arab nation and India go well beyond the time even before the UAE came into existence in 1971. The middle power which holds a strong influence in the United Nations, Arab League, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, OPEC, and the Gulf Cooperation Council has been an all-weather ally of India in world politics, according to the Eurasian Times.
Complex interdependencies in international politics have been a hallmark of many bilateral ties. But when one analyses the ties shared by India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), it goes beyond the prism postulated by Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye to describe the emerging nature of the global political economy in a rapidly changing world, as analysed by Eurasian Times.
The UAE is also emerging as a major partner in Jammu and Kashmir's development. In the past few months, the Union Territory has signed a slew of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) with Abu Dhabi to build strong business relations.
Further, in October 2021, the first Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the two governments to develop real estate, industrial parks, super-speciality hospitals among others.
In December last year, the Jammu and Kashmir administration signed an MoU with University College Birmingham (UCB) Dubai to explore potential progression opportunities through institutional partnerships with vocational colleges and universities in Kashmir.
The UCB would set up an office in Jammu and Kashmir to tie up with the local educational institutions, facilitating academic exchange programmes while enabling students to secure admissions at reduced fees in the Middle East, as reported by Eurasian Times.
Meanwhile, on January 5, 2022, the Union Territory signed a historic agreement with Dubai-based LuLu Group to set up a food processing & logistics hub in Srinagar. The agreement was aimed at further expanding Jammu & Kashmir-Dubai collaboration, as analysed by according to the Eurasian Times.
The UAE venturing into Jammu and Kashmir is a signal to Pakistan which has been harping on the propaganda about Kashmir being a problem that needs to be settled and Muslim countries should support its argument.
Earlier, Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the UAE in 30 years when he embarked on a tour of the country in 2015. He followed it up with visits in 2018 and 2019. His scheduled visit in 2022 was put off due to the rising case of Omicron in India.
The two nations were supposed to sign a partial FTA (free trade agreement) after formal talks were launched in September last year between India's Commerce and Industries Minister Piyush Goyal and UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, according to the Eurasian Times.
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( With inputs from ANI )
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