Historically, India and United Arab Emirates didn’t share a very cordial relation. It is because of UAE’s stance with Pakistan on the Kashmir conflict.
But it was changing when Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a two-day visit to UAE in 2015 at the invitation of His Highness Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It was the first state visit by an Indian Prime Minister in 34 years after Late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had visited in 1981.
Since then India and UAE have had a stable relation. Their present bilateral relations include not just foreign trade and oil industry but it has multiplied to the IT sector, labour, tourism, defence manufacturing and much more. UAE was the second largest export destination of India with an amount of over US$ 33 billion for the year 2014-15. For UAE, India was the largest trading partner for the year 2013 with an amount of over US$ 36 billion (non-oil trade).
India exports food items (cereals, sugar, fruits & vegetables, tea, meat, and seafood); textiles (garments, apparel, synthetic fibre, cotton, yarn); engineering & machinery products and chemicals to UAE and imports petroleum and petroleum products; precious metals, stones, gems & jewellery; minerals; chemicals; wood & wood products.
UAE has been investing in the country with respect to its bilateral relations. It appreciates Indian government projects like Skill India, Smart city, etc and expects to invest in these projects.
Since the relations of both countries are stable, Indian community has been the largest one of UAE, numbering about 1.5 million, which makes up roughly 27% of the population. Professionally qualified personnel constitute about 15 & 20 percent of the community, followed by 20 percent white-collar non-professionals (clerical staff, shop assistants, sales men, accountants, etc.) and the remainder 65% comprises blue-collar workers majority of which are people from Kerala.
The number of tourists from both have increased, and the number of UAE nationals availing health facilities in India increases too.
In February 2016, when His Highness Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan came on a state visit to India, both leaders agreed to work together and had a range of discussions on bilateral, regional and multilateral issues and signed a number of MoU to facilitate:
(i) Institutional Investors in infrastructure,
(ii) cooperation in Renewable energy,
(iii) cooperation in combating Cyber-crimes,
(iv) Cultural exchange,
(v) Space,
(vi) Skill Development,
(vii) Insurance
(viii) Currency swaps.
Recently, Kerala faced its worst flood in a century due to unusually high amount of rains. Over 445 people died, 15 are missing and millions got displaced in a week. The amount of loss is estimated to be around ₹2,100 Crore. The Centre has offered ₹600 Crore while the other states of India are giving tiny silver amounts which they can offer.
Amid all this, a news came that UAE government has offered Indian government a whopping ₹700 Crore to flood hit Kerala. The office of the Kerala CM announced in a press statement that “Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed that the United Arab Emirates will provide Kerala an assistance of Rs 700 Crore. Kerala has a special relationship with (the) UAE, which is a home away from home for Malayalees. We express our gratitude to (the) UAE for their support.”
PM Modi later tweeted thanking the UAE government for the gesture. He tweeted, “A big thanks to @hhshkmohd for his gracious offer to support people of Kerala during this difficult time. His concern reflects the special ties between governments and people of India and UAE.”
Later there was news that the Centre has rejected the offer given by the UAE government. In 2004, after the tsunami disaster, UPA government undertook a policy that the government rejected the aid offered by foreign countries. PM Manmohan Singh had famously said “We feel that we can cope with the situation on our own and we will take their help if needed.”
This was to show that India is now a growing economy and can handle such situations on their own. However, this policy didn’t reject private contributions that have been made. Before the 2004 tsunami disaster, Indian government had taken foreign aid in many natural calamities like the Lathur earthquake (1993), Gujarat earthquake (2001), Bengal cyclone (2002) and more.
Now, when the centre rejected the aid by UAE government, it was met with a lot of criticism. The Indian government assured that it would take care of this situation with the help of “internal aid”. Many were not sure about how would the government cope with the situation with centre just offering ₹600 Crore. Kerala CM pleaded with the centre to reverse its decision while many thought that this rejection may spoil the relation between both the countries.
Recently, the government of UAE has issued a statement saying that they have not offered Kerala ₹700 and that they have set up a committee to check the damage in Kerala after which they will decide the amount to be offered. “The UAE has not officially announced any financial aid for Kerala flood relief. We have not conveyed anything to India on any assistance”, said a senior official in the UAE embassy.
Though a special aid is expected by the UAE government given its relation with the southern state of India. Over 80% of the Indian diaspora living in UAE are from Kerala. Although there have been news about ill-treatment of Malayalee labours in UAE, many people still migrate to the country in search for better opportunities. This movement of people from the country has also helped the Indian as well as the UAE economy to grow as the construction business in UAE was going downhill.
But the main question still remains about what india government will do with the aid, and how it will influence the relations of both countries.
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