Abu Dhabi: India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a series of landmark agreements on Friday, covering strategic petroleum reserves, long-term LPG supply, defence and shipping, with Abu Dhabi committing investments of USD 5 billion in India, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held high-level talks with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan against the backdrop of the escalating West Asia conflict.
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The agreements, six in total, were concluded during Modi's stopover in Abu Dhabi — the first leg of a five-nation tour that will also take him to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy.
The centrepiece of the energy deals was a strategic collaboration agreement between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), aimed at strengthening India's energy security. The pact will raise the UAE's participation in India's strategic petroleum reserves to 30 million barrels and pave the way for setting up strategic gas reserves in India. It also opens the door to cooperation on liquefied natural gas and LPG storage facilities.
The UAE and India also signed a dedicated strategic collaboration pact on LPG — a cooking fuel on which hundreds of millions of Indian households depend — to secure long-term supply.
A separate agreement between Indian Oil Corporation and ADNOC is intended to create new avenues for LPG trade, including a long-term sale-and-purchase arrangement between the two state-owned energy companies.
The agreements take on added urgency given the ongoing West Asia conflict, which has heightened India's concerns about potential disruptions to crude oil and gas supplies through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which a significant share of India's energy imports flows.
On the investment front, the UAE announced a USD 5 billion commitment to India. The package includes plans by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund to explore investments of up to USD 1 billion in India's infrastructure sector. Emirates NBD will invest USD 3 billion in RBL Bank, while UAE-based International Holding Company will invest USD 1 billion in Sammaan Capital.
Modi said the investment commitment would "further deepen economic ties." The Ministry of External Affairs described it as a reflection of the UAE's "sustained commitment to India's development and growth story."
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri placed the announcement in the context of a long-standing investment relationship. "In the field of investment, the UAE has traditionally been a significant investor in India. It is cumulatively the seventh-largest investor in India over the course of the last 25 years," he said.
Beyond energy, the two sides signed a framework for a strategic defence partnership covering defence industrial collaboration, technology sharing, innovation and regional security cooperation, with plans to explore joint development of military hardware.
"The two sides have agreed on deepening defence industrial collaboration and cooperation on innovation and advanced technology, training, exercises, maritime security, cyber defence, secure communications and information exchange," an official statement said.
On shipping, the agreements included the setting up of a ship repair centre at Vadinar in Gujarat, cooperation on ports and coastal infrastructure, and a skill development arrangement in ship repair. Cochin Shipyard Limited and Drydocks World of Dubai also signed a separate pact.
The two sides additionally signed a term sheet for a super-computing cluster to strengthen India's artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure. "This will add to India's AI mission and the infrastructure involved with that," Misri said.
Both countries also welcomed the operationalisation of a virtual trade corridor linking customs and port authorities to streamline cargo movement, cut logistics costs and reduce transit times. Misri said it would help both countries in "building supply chain resilience in a world that is seeing increasing disruption in supply chains."
Modi and Al Nahyan also exchanged views on the regional crisis. Modi condemned the strikes on the UAE, saying "the way UAE has been targeted is not acceptable." He praised the Emirati leadership for handling the situation "with restraint" and said India was ready to extend "all possible support" to bring peace to the region. The UAE, which hosts a major US military base, has faced Iranian strikes since the conflict began on February 28.
Al Nahyan personally received Modi at the airport in Abu Dhabi, where the Indian Prime Minister was accorded a ceremonial guard of honour. In a special gesture, Modi's aircraft was escorted by UAE military jets — this being his eighth visit to the Gulf country in 12 years.
Modi described the agreements as "pivotal" in vital sectors such as energy, defence, infrastructure, shipping and advanced technologies, and said they would provide a "fresh boost" to the India-UAE comprehensive strategic partnership. He called the visit "brief, yet extraordinarily fruitful."
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Misri echoed the sentiment. "This visit is a reflection of the exceptional trust and confidence that marks this very, very important relationship between India and the United Arab Emirates," he said, noting that the energy sector "has always been a very important part" of the bilateral relationship.
The visit came amid widening fault lines among Gulf powers over oil production, the Strait of Hormuz blockade and regional alignments involving Israel and Iran — developments that have added complexity to India's strategic calculus in West Asia.