Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan held a one-on-one meeting in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday to review the bilateral partnership and discuss new areas of cooperation.
The two leaders welcomed deepening of the comprehensive strategic partnership across sectors, including trade and investment, digital infrastructure, fintech, energy, infrastructure, culture and people to people ties, said an official statement.
Both Modi and Al Nahyan also held delegation-level talks and several memoranda of understanding (MoU) were exchanged in their presence. India has signed both a bilateral investment treaty and a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with the UAE.
The two countries on Tuesday signed an MoU on cooperation in the field of electrical interconnection and trade. This opens new areas of collaboration in the field of energy, including energy security and energy trade, the PMO said.
The two countries have also signed an Intergovernmental Framework Agreement on the India-Middle East Economic Corridor and an MoU on cooperation in Digital Infrastructure Projects.
A cooperation protocol between the National Archives of the two countries and an MoU for cooperation in the field of heritage and museums were also signed during the delegation-level talks.
An agreement on interlinking of the instant payment platforms—UPI (India) and AANI (UAE)—is expected to facilitate seamless cross-border transactions between the two countries. This follows the MoU on interlinking payment and messaging systems signed in July last year during Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi.
An agreement on inter-linking domestic debit/credit cards—RuPay (India) with JAYWAN (UAE)—was also signed, which will enhance the universal acceptance of RuPay across the UAE.
Modi congratulated President Al Nahyan on the launch of UAE’s domestic card JAYWAN, which is based on the digital RuPay credit and debit card stack.
