New Delhi: India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are engaged in technical discussions to finalise a rupee-dirham association for commerce in an effort to increase industrial ties following the signing of a free commerce settlement, UAE ambassador Abdulnasser Jamal Alshaali has mentioned.

The UAE is eager on revisiting the bilateral association for flights to assist convey down airfares, Alshaali mentioned in an interview. Space, defence, meals and vitality safety, prescribed drugs and well being care are areas the 2 nations will give attention to throughout the framework of final 12 months’s complete financial partnership settlement (CEPA) to spice up commerce, he mentioned.

Responding to a query on Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks about asking the UAE to assist construct a bridge with India, Alshaali mentioned his nation has “played such a role in the past”, however future endeavours on this regard will rely upon each India and Pakistan.

Asked concerning the progress on the rupee-dirham association, Alshaali replied: “The technical conversation is ongoing. There has been an agreement to settle a certain (amount) of trade between the two countries…(This) is an ongoing conversation at the technical level and how they can proceed with it. We also have the remittance facility to make it more direct and easier. There’s still technical issues to be discussed and agreed on.”

With non-oil bilateral commerce at the moment price $44 billion and the 2 international locations setting a goal of $100 billion for 2027, Alshaali mentioned the UAE desires to put money into sectors necessary to each international locations. “We want to make sure we expand aviation ties, we want to invest in food security and by extension, food park projects in different states,” he mentioned.

In the context of the UAE’s long-standing request to revisit the bilateral flight association, Alshaali mentioned either side had “maxed out” their rights and extra flights and extra locations in India are wanted to drive down airfares.

“The UAE airlines have maxed out, Indian airlines have maxed out and you can see it from the prices. If you check the price of a ticket today, it’s more than 50% higher than it used to be a few years back…That’s already a market signal which we need to pay attention to because we are talking about this entire relationship, and aviation is a crucial point in expanding this relationship,” he mentioned.

There is an ongoing dialog on the UAE aspect’s request to fly to further Indian locations. “…the aviation sector in India has been going through privatisation. There are all kinds of agreements happening and we understand that, but this is something important for both markets because otherwise I don’t see how prices are going to go down anytime because it’s a simple demand-supply question,” he added.

Under the brand new India-Israel-UAE-US or I2U2 grouping, the UAE is seeking to put money into meals parks and a renewable vitality challenge in Gujarat to spice up the nation’s meals safety.

“The Gujarat government shared a proposal on specific food commodities and their levels of production and those were shared with (the holding company) ADQ on the sidelines of the I2U2 Business Forum (held) in Abu Dhabi last week. There was also a conversation between ADQ and officials from Gujarat,” Alshaali mentioned.

The UAE can be specializing in complementarities between its COP28 presidency and India’s G20 presidency, particularly in renewable vitality. The UAE is amongst 9 visitor international locations invited by India for the G20.

“In terms of COP28, the main focus we have at the moment is how can we find areas of cooperation and expand on them that overlap between the G20 and the COP28 presidency. We’re supporting India’s presidency and…obviously we can count on India’s support in the COP28 presidency as well,” Alshaali mentioned.

Asked about studies that the UAE had helped scale back tensions between India and Pakistan in the course of the 2019 Pulwama disaster and Prime Minister Sharif’s remarks about looking for the UAE’s assist to convey the 2 international locations to the negotiating desk, Alshaali mentioned: “So our relationship is good both ways, right? And we have played such a role in the past, but again this is going to be up to both countries and whether this is something that they would want us to do or not.”