NEW DELHI: The Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, will visit India between April 8 and 9 to strengthen bilateral ties across key strategic sectors. This will mark his first official visit to India as the crown prince.PM Narendra Modi will host a working lunch for the crown prince on Tuesday. Soon after his arrival in Delhi, the crown prince will meet with External Affairs Minister S Jaishnakar. After the meeting with Modi, he will discuss matters with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.“Traditionally, Dubai has played an important role in India’s commercial, cultural and people-to-people exchanges with the UAE,” the External Affairs Ministry said. The majority of India’s around 4.3 million diaspora in the UAE resides and works in Dubai. The crown prince’s visit “will further solidify the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and strengthen our multifaceted ties with Dubai,” the statement said.The visit is expected to explore opportunities for deepening cooperation in various sectors such as trade, investment, technology, and infrastructure.The crown prince will also visit Mumbai to participate in a business roundtable with prominent business leaders from both sides. The statement said the interaction will strengthen India—UAE economic and commercial cooperation across traditional and futuristic areas.Since the strengthening of ties between India and the UAE to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2017, the trade relations between the two countries have grown substantially. From a modest annual trade of $180 million in the 1970s, trade volume surged to $83.65 billion in 2023-24. The UAE is India’s third-largest trading partner and second-largest export destination, with exports exceeding $35.62 billion in 2023-24. India is the UAE’s second-largest trading partner, with exports valued at over $48 billion in 2023-24. The trade between the two countries is diverse, including petroleum, gems and jewellery, food items, textiles, chemicals, and engineering goods.
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