- India
- May 16
- Sreesha V.M
India, UAE sign energy, defence pacts
• India and the United Arab Emirates signed agreements across various sectors including energy, defence, maritime infrastructure, and emerging technologies during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi on May 15.
• The Leaders also reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral relations and welcomed the deepening of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership across multiple sectors.
• They acknowledged the success of the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which has led to bilateral trade scaling new heights.
Key outcomes of the visit:
1) MoU on Strategic Collaboration between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC): The leaders agreed to promote new initiatives for a comprehensive energy partnership. In this context, they welcomed the conclusion of a Strategic Collaboration Agreement between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company to enhance UAE’s participation in India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves to 30 million barrels, and work together to set up strategic gas reserves in India. Storage of crude oil in Fujairah, UAE, to form part of the Indian strategic petroleum reserve.
2) Strategic Collaboration Agreement between Indian Oil Limited (IOCL) Company and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) on supplies of Liquified Petroleum gas (LPG): Explore potential opportunities in the sale and purchase of LPG, including long term supply of LPG, and entry into a long-term LPG sale and purchase agreement between ADNOC Gas Limited and IOCL.
3) Framework for the Strategic Defence Partnership: A Strategic Framework for Defence Industrial collaboration, innovation and advanced technology, training, exercises, education and doctrine, special operations and interoperability, maritime security, cyber defence, secure communications and information exchange.
4) Announcement of $5 billion in investment into India by UAE entities: This includes investment of $3 billion by the Emirates NBD in the RBL Bank of India, $1 billion by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) with the National Infrastructure & Investment Fund of India (NIIF) in priority infrastructure projects in India, and $1 billion by the International Holding Company in Sammaan Capital of India.
5) MoU between Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) and Drydocks World (DDW) on setting up Ship Repair Cluster at Vadinar: Cooperation for setting up a Ship Repair Cluster at Vadinar, including offshore fabrication, under the Maritime Development Fund Scheme launched by the government of India.
6) MoU between Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL), Drydocks World (DDW) and Centre of Excellence in Maritime & Shipbuilding (CEMS) on Skill Development in Ship Repair: The tripartite agreement establishes a framework to mobilise, train and employ skilled maritime workforce. The MoU seeks to enhance capabilities of Indian maritime workforce and position India as a hub for skilled shipbuilding and ship repair professionals.
7) Term Sheet for setting up 8 Exaflop Super Computing Cluster in partnership between CDAC, India and G-42, UAE: It will pave the way for collaboration between CDAC and G-42 to set up super computing cluster as part of AI Mission India.
Additional Read:
Strategic Petroleum Reserves in India
The Indian government, through a Special Purpose Vehicle called Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Limited (ISPRL), have established Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) facilities with total capacity of 5.33 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of crude oil at three locations in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which can act as buffer for short-term supply shocks.
(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants.)