Khaled Al Khawaldeh (Abu Dhabi)
The UAE Ambassador to the Republic of India, Dr. Abdulnasser Alshaali told Aletihad on Monday that India and the UAE were reviewing some of the terms of their trade agreement, in effect since 2022, stressing that it was normal protocol.
"The agreement that you sign between two countries every now and then has a review process, and some agreements actually expire, and that you have to look into them again," Dr. Alshaali told Aletihad on the sidelines of the Hili conference held in Abu Dhabi this week.
"This is only normal, because when you look at everything going on around you, things keep on changing, and they will keep on evolving. And you have to make sure that whatever agreements, whatever mechanism schemes you have in place, are actually also evolving to match the pace going forward."
The Ambassador underlined the importance of India as a strategic partner in economic and political affairs which he said was exemplified by the recent visit of His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
He said the recent MoU signed between the two countries to cooperate on nuclear energy would open new doors of trade and investment, particularly in other forms of energy. "One of the key things that India is focused on, and the way to support India, is energy security.
Energy security not only entails fuels, but also renewable energy, which is going to be quite important for India to move forward. This, by extension, would include sources like solar and wind turbines, and nuclear energy as a main source of India's energy security," the Ambassador said.
"We want to invest in the renewable energy sector. A few states in India have massive solar capacity. Other states can do the wind turbines. Nuclear energy is also important, but nuclear energy will also mean that you would have to do it a little bit different because of the grid and how you want to distribute the grid."