India and UAE sign string of deals on crown prince visit
India and the United Arab Emirates on Thursday signed deals in fields ranging from space technology to renewable energy during a visit to New Delhi by Abu Dhabi's crown prince, the Indian foreign ministry said. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the deals following talks in the Indian capital New Delhi. "The 4 Agreements are in the field of cybersecurity, infrastructure investment, renewable energy & space cooperation," foreign ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup said on Twitter, without giving further details. The space cooperation pact comes as the UAE seeks India's expertise for its first interplanetary expedition, according to the Press Trust of India. The Emirates Mars Mission orbiter is scheduled to touch down on Mars in 2021 in a mission to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the UAE. Other agreements covered skill development, insurance and culture, Swarup added in another post on the social media site. Modi posted on Twitter after meeting Al-Nahyan that the two leaders had enjoyed a "productive interaction". "Avenues of India-UAE cooperation are immense," he tweeted. Trade between the countries reached $59 billion last year, but UAE state minister for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash said ahead of the visit that the countries were seeking to boost this by 60 percent within five years. The crown prince, deputy chief of the UAE armed forces, arrived for the three-day trip -- his first visit to India -- late Wednesday accompanied by a large business delegation. The trip comes six months after Modi became the first Indian premier in three decades to visit the UAE, underlining India's push to forge deeper ties with the oil-rich state. Abu Dhabi is the largest of seven emirates that make up the UAE, which is India's third largest trading partner, after the US and China. The UAE is also home to around 2.6 million Indians who mostly work on construction sites -- the largest expatriate community in the country. Al-Nahyan is scheduled to head to India's financial capital Mumbai on Friday before wrapping up his visit.
