UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed had a brief — but productive — three-hour visit to New Delhi this week.
ADNOC signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to supply liquefied natural gas to India, making it the UAE’s top customer for LNG, as MBZ held talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deepen trade and defense ties. The two sides pledged to double bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032 and to form a strategic defense pact. The UAE is India’s third-largest trading partner (Saudi Arabia is the fifth), and Indians make up the largest expat group in the Emirates, accounting for more than a third of the population.
Abu Dhabi’s burgeoning and increasingly open rivalry with Riyadh is also playing out in the region: India’s nemesis Pakistan last week said it was drafting a three-way defense agreement with Saudi Arabia and Türkiye, Reuters reported, amid an ongoing rift between the kingdom and the UAE over a host of foreign policy issues.