India, UAE to hold joint commission meeting

New Delh: Days after the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to UAE, India and the UAE are set to hold a meeting of their joint commission on technical and economical cooperation on September 2-3 here.

UAE Foreign Affairs Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan is leading a delegation, including senior officials and captains of industry, to India for the India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting on Technical and Economical Cooperation.

The meeting, the 11th in series, will be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Sheikh Abdullah and discuss a variety of bilateral issues including trade, investment and cooperation in new areas including defence production, infrastructure, security, counter-terrorism, energy security and medium and small enterprises. Other issues to be taken up are scientific collaboration in the areas of space and renewable energy, sustainable development, environment, arid agriculture, desert ecology, urban development and advanced healthcare.

India and UAE have historically enjoyed close and friendly relations marked by high-level visits, commercial exchanges and people-to-people contacts, said an official statement.

Geographical proximity, historical trade links, cultural affinities and growing cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including, energy security, trade and investment, infrastructure development projects, petrochemicals, education and culture continue to strengthen and deepen this relationship, it added, noting that the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UAE “redefined our bilateral relationship and elevated it to a strategic partnership”.

The forthcoming Joint Commission Meeting is expected to take the multifaceted bilateral relations to new heights, it added.

IANS