Abu Dhabi, 14 Feb

India and the UAE have inked 10 pacts for collaboration in key sectors like energy, infrastructure, investments, and management of archives during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to further strengthen the bilateral relationship, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said here on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference on the second day of the Prime Minister's visit to Abu Dhabi, he said the bilateral trade between the two countries already stands close to USD 85 billion and up as the fourth largest investor in the Indian economy.

Kwatra said said in a real gesture, he was received by the President of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed on Tuesday and also accorded a ceremonial welcome at the airport. "The leaders held detailed delegation level and one-to-one talks which covered the entire gamut of bilateral engagement between India and the UAE as also the significant developments regionally as also globally. 10 MoUs have been signed which represent the relationship between India and UAE across the whole range of areas," the foreign secretary said.

"The first one that was signed was an MOU on cooperation in the field of electricity connection and trade. The objective of this particular MOU is to focus on strengthening our partnership in two crucial domains, one relating to energy security and two relating to energy trade. Clean energy trade is an important segment of this MoU," he said. This would focus naturally on green hydrogen, and also on energy storage.

"Naturally the collaboration that deals with investment policy research, research, development, and innovation, across this entire sector of clean and green energy would also form an important segment of partnership under this MOU,” he added.

Kwatra said the Inter-governmental Framework Agreement concerning Cooperation for the Empowerment and Operation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will further regional connectivity. "The main areas under this particular agreement which are covered are one relating to cooperation on logistics platforms, which is a crucial element of furthering the objectives of this particular quality to the provision of supply chain services, and our supply chain services not just limited to one or two things but to cover all types of general cargo while containers and liquid," he said. “One of the aims is to see how quickly the IMEC gets operated and benefits the core objective of stronger, deeper, more extensive regional connectivity between the parties involved,” Kwatra said.

The corridor was announced in New Delhi during the G20 summit in September. The IMEC is being seen as an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It will connect India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Europe. The Ministry of Investment of the UAE and India’s Ministry of Electronics and Technology (MEITY) have signed an MoU for cooperation on digital infrastructure projects.

"This is a framework agreement that focuses on investment cooperation in the field of digital infrastructures, naturally, as a corollary of that the focus is on developing capabilities, sharing technical knowledge, advice, skills, and expertise under this particular framework, government agencies as also the regulatory authorities will also look to forge partnerships under this particular digital infrastructure MOU.

"This would focus on some of the key areas of digital space that include high power computing, digital innovation, and the platforms relating to management of data," he said.

Briefing about the bilateral investment treaty between India and the UAE, Kwatra said that the agreement will set the basis for stronger and more extensive and wide-ranging investment partnerships because it focuses not just on protecting the existing investments. "It also advances the objective of promoting further capital flows between the two economies. Then, is the MOU on the development of the national maritime heritage complex. This is a national maritime heritage complex at Lothal in Gujarat. The two sides will work closely and the relevant departments will to develop this this project in a comprehensive fashion,” he said.

The National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) is an under-construction tourism complex near Lothal in Bhavnagar district of Gujarat, India which will present the maritime heritage of India. The complex will have museums, amusement parks, educational institutes, hotels and resorts.

"There is agreement on the cooperation protocol at the National Archives of India. The objective is to promote cooperation in archives management, through the exchange of expertise, historical information, to search and studies, etc," Kwatra said.

An agreement on interlinking of the instant payment platforms - UPI (India) and AANI (UAE) and an agreement on inter-linking domestic debit/credit cards - RuPay (India) with JAYWAN (UAE) have also been inked.

During his visit, Prime Minister Modi also interacted with the first batch of students at IIT Abu Dhabi. On Tuesday evening, he addressed a gathering of the Indian diaspora at Zayed Sports City in an event called "Ahlan Modi". Modi later on Wednesday will inaugurate the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi and lead a dedication ceremony.