India’s strategic UAE embrace

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand-alone recent two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates — the collection of seven tiny principalities on the Persian/Arabian Gulf which coalesced in 1971 and built a nation that is a trading and economic powerhouse constructed on a social and political policy of welcoming foreigners, inter-faith tolerance, moderation, and abhorrence of extremism and terrorism — marks the first acknowledgement by India that the UAE has evolved in the democratic direction although it is a sheikhdom.

Mr Modi grasped this, and will reap the benefits of acquiring a strong and stable ally in the Sunni Arab world, if the security and trade and investment policies adumbrated during his visit come to fruition. It is all the more necessary that this should happen as India is a rapidly expanding economy of continental size and badly needs stable energy supplies and investments on a gargantuan scale. When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was in the UAE in 1981, it would have been a trip of benevolence, a glance of friendship to a dot on the map that was emerging as a major petroleum supplier and provider of opportunity to Indian workers.

In subsequent years, and in more recent times until the time of PM Vajpayee, UAE was looked upon with suspicion as a staunch ally of Pakistan which acted as a shelter and provider of economic opportunity to terrorists and extremists nurtured by Islamabad out of the Indian or Afghan theatre. Some of this persisted under PM Manmohan Singh who, however, did begin to grasp that the UAE was changing in a direction that might be favourable to India, although the Emirati leadership remained a staunch benefactor of the militarist regime in Islamabad.

But he was operating in an environment of global economic slowdown and domestic business scandals involving Indian companies (in cahoots with administration elements) which had UAE business partners, and was hampered by these circumstances in pushing ties with Abu Dhabi. Mr Modi has cut through the cobwebs of the past and recognises present-day UAE for what it is. Based on its own needs and experience and not any lecture from do-gooders, it has emerged as an enemy of extremism and terrorism and exerts pressures and tough checks on these tendencies, especially their funding. It recently passed a model tolerance law and has provided land for a Hindu temple.

Internationally, it is a noteworthy provider of investment funds and experience in energy infrastructure and real estate development. The Prime Minister seems to have successfully tapped into all of this. His test will be to live up to the promise of offering an enabling environment in India for Emirati investments and trade. UAE must reciprocate with opportunities for India’s strengths in intellectual ability and skilled labour.