UAE, INDIA ENERGY COOPERATION

WAM - ABU DHABI, 26th May, 2022 -- Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy for Climate Change, held a series of high-level meetings with government and business leaders in India, focused on opportunities within the energy transition and industrial growth.

The visit comprised bilateral meetings with senior Indian government officials, including Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs; Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food and Public Distribution and Textiles; and Shri Bhupender Yadav, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Minister of Labour and Employment.

Following Dr. Al Jaber’s meeting with Bhupender Yadav, the UAE and India agreed to expand bilateral cooperation towards accelerated climate action and implementation of the Paris agreement, including public-private partnership across renewable power deployment, agriculture efficiency, green hydrogen, sustainable finance, and carbon market development.

Commenting on the agreement, Dr. Sultan said, "The UAE’s deepened collaboration with India on the multiple growth opportunities offered by the energy transition builds upon decades of close UAE-India commercial and diplomatic ties. Today, India is one of the UAE’s largest trade partners, and we welcome the opportunity to capitalise on this strong foundation to power low carbon growth through public and private sector solutions that are good for the climate and the future economic prospects of both our peoples."

The UAE’s expanded cooperation with India in the area of climate aims to support India’s ambition to achieve 450 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030 and aligns with the UAE’s ambitions to expand its low and zero-carbon energy capabilities.

Dr. Sultan and the UAE delegation also met with numerous Indian business leaders, including Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries; Arun Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL); Sajjan Jindal, Chairman of JSW Group; and Dr. Alka Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

The private-sector meetings covered new potential opportunities, particularly those in the area of decarbonisation and climate solutions to further expand UAE-India industrial cooperation, leveraging new opportunities made possible by the recently announced UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that went into effect on 1st May, 2022.

India was the second-largest trading partner of the UAE in 2021. It accounted for 9 percent of the total volume of the UAE's trade with the world, and 13 percent of the UAE's non-oil exports, while the non-oil foreign trade between the two countries in 2021 reached AED165 billion, a growth of 66 percent compared to 2020. Within the next five years, India seeks to grow the value of such bilateral trade to $100 billion (AED367 billion), further securing India’s place as one of the UAE’s most significant and trusted commercial partners.

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