Crown Prince Al Maktoum's India Visit: IIM-Ahmedabad, IIFT Campuses In Dubai Soon

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's visit to India on Tuesday saw both sides firming up steps. This included establishing ship-repair clusters at Kochi and Vadinar and setting up a campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in Dubai as part of efforts to boost overall ties.

The Crown Prince, who is also the deputy prime minister and defence minister of the UAE, arrived in the national capital on Tuesday morning on a two-day India visit. In the evening, he travelled to Mumbai. PM Modi hosted a working lunch for the Crown Prince at his residence in Lok Kalyan Marg.

The decisions were announced hours after Al Maktoum held separate meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.

It was also decided that the first overseas campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) will be set up in Dubai and that land will be allocated for the construction of an India-UAE friendship hospital in the Gulf city, according to the Ministry of External Affairs.

The MEA said that the construction work of Bharat Mart and the launch of a 3-D rendering of the Bharat Mart complex were agreed upon. In his meeting with Modi, the Dubai Crown Prince presented the prime minister a replica of his grandfather Sheikh Rashid's bisht, which is a traditional embroidered cloak worn over the Qandura by Arab men. This symbolises the generational political friendship between the two countries.

Both leaders also discussed avenues to strengthen the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and strong cultural and people-to-people ties. In a social media post, Modi said Dubai has played a key role in advancing the India-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership.

"Glad to meet HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai. Dubai has played a key role in advancing the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership," Modi said.

"This special visit reaffirms our deep-rooted friendship and paves the way for even stronger collaboration in the future," he added.

In the meeting between Singh and Al Maktoum, they discussed ways to further strengthen the strategic defence and security partnership between the two countries. Both India and the UAE are committed to working towards peace and prosperity in the region, he said.

After his meeting, Singh said India is eager to work closely with the Gulf nation in the defence sector, including in co-production and co-development projects. The defence ministry said Singh and Al Maktoum were convinced that close collaboration between the defence industries should be an integral part of the bilateral cooperation.

In his meeting with the Crown Prince, Jaishankar highlighted the tremendous deepening and widening of the relationship across sectors between the two countries in recent years.

The Crown Prince presented original newspaper coverage of the successful effort of his father, the Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in saving passengers on board Indian Airlines Flight 421 in August 1984.

The visiting leader also met Goyal during a high-level business meeting in Mumbai. They discussed the contribution of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in the rapid growth of bilateral trade, the MEA said.

The MEA said the proposed overseas campus of the IIM-Ahmedabad and IIFT in Dubai will further strengthen the educational cooperation between the two countries and position Dubai and the UAE as a key regional and global destination for eminent Indian educational institutions.

This follows the inauguration of the first-ever campus of the IIT in the Middle East in Abu Dhabi last year. These initiatives will benefit the 4.3 million-strong Indian diaspora living in the UAE and around nine million Indian diaspora in the Gulf Region, the MEA said in a statement.

It said the Cochin Shipyard Ltd and Drydocks World, a DP World company, signed an MoU to enable the development of ship repair clusters at Kochi, Kerala and Vadinar, Gujarat, synergising their mutual strengths.

This is expected to bring global best practices to the ship repair ecosystem in the country and add significant capacities, it said. The MoU also provides for cooperation in potential offshore fabrication opportunities engaging other entities like major ports.

The MEA said the announcements regarding Bharat Mart and Virtual Trade Corridor (VTC) and the MAITRI interface (to support VTC) reaffirm the importance India attaches to its trade and commercial relationship with the UAE. Work on VTC also reaffirms India's commitment to the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, it said.

Bilateral trade, which is expected to cross USD 97 billion, will receive further impetus through these initiatives and will help achieve the non-oil trade target of USD 100 billion, according to the MEA.

(With inputs from PTI.)