India, UAE ink defence, security pacts

New Delhi: Seeking to boost security collaboration, India and the United Arab Emirates today inked two pacts to enable cooperation in the areas of cyberspace, armaments, defence industries and transfer of technology. Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Mohammed Al Bawardi, UAE’s Minister of State for Defence, exchanged Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of defence industry.

The agreement aims to establish cooperation in the identified fields of defence manufacturing and technology, including through studies, research, development, innovation and cooperation between public and private sector institutions of the two nations. Under this MoU, the two sides will also collaborate in areas of armaments, defence industries and transfer of technology.

The second MoU exchanged between Parrikar and Shaikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy National Security Adviser and Chairman of the State Security Department, UAE, was aimed at technology development and cooperation in cyberspace. It is noteworthy that in May last year, Parrikar’s visit to the Gulf country focused on widening conversation with the UAE military on defence and security issues.

Possibilities of Indian defence manufacturers selling military equipment to the UAE were also explored during Parrikar’s visit. Parrikar had also inked an MoU on the Mutual Protection of Classified Information. Bilateral defence interaction between India and the UAE has been witnessing a steady growth.

There have been regular high level exchanges at the level of service chiefs, functional level exchanges and military education exchanges between the countries. The ships of the navies of both countries have regularly made port calls enhancing bilateral defence cooperation. India and UAE also hold an ‘Annual Defence Dialogue’ to discuss the security and defence cooperation issues between the two countries.