On the occasion of India’s Republic Day, I extend my warm greetings and best wishes to the Indian community in the UAE. Fifty-eight years ago on this day, India adopted her Constitution and declared herself a “Sovereign Democratic Republic”. Respect for human rights constitutes the core of the Indian Constitution which the people of India have cherished all these years and have uncompromisingly upheld in all situations and contingencies.

India is truly a multi-cultural society in which every individual, regardless of religion, region, language or gender, enjoys equal rights. India’s democratic order has ensured that every Indian, regardless of economic status, lives a life of dignity and self-respect and is able to make his or her unique contribution to the development of the mother country and the strengthening of her values and principles.

India today is a trillion-dollar economy which has sustained growth rates of over 9 per cent over the last several years. Its services and industrial sectors are booming, while its educational and training centres have provided world class professionals who have made a mark throughout the world.

In the foreign policy area, India has continued to maintain the best possible relations with all countries of the world on the basis of non-interference and mutual respect. India’s ties with the Gulf countries enjoy a special place in her foreign relations since they are founded on 5000 years of interaction which has encompassed a multiplicity of areas – commercial, religious, intellectual, philosophical and cultural.

This age-old interaction has enriched the lives of the peoples of South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula and has tied them with bonds that have continued to be strengthened century after century. These relations have been sustained primarily because they have been for mutual benefit and because they were regularly refreshed and imparted a contemporary value on the basis of new needs and ground realities. For centuries, India provided necessities, comforts and luxuries to the people of the Gulf. In recent years, when in the wake of the oil boom major infrastructure and welfare projects came to be pursued in the Gulf, India provided human resources and, today, Indians constitute the largest expatriate community in the region. On its part, the Gulf provides most of India’s hydrocarbon requirements, while the money value of India’s ties with the GCC is over $75 billion per annum, the highest value that India has with any economic grouping.

With high growth rates in India and the GCC countries and the availability of resources, human technological and financial, the stage is set for India’s ties with the GCC to scale new heights. The specific sectors which will make up these new ventures and initiatives will be energy, infrastructure and the development of the knowledge economy.

India’s ties with the UAE will be central to the realization of this ambitious programme of cooperation. The year 2007 was a particularly propitious year in India-UAE ties witnessing as it did the visits of Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in March 2007, and of UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan in June 2007, as also the return visits by Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr. Kamal Nath, and the Indian Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Mr. Vyalar Ravi. India–UAE bilateral trade stood at over $20 billion, a 100 per cent increase over the previous year. The top construction companies of the UAE, EMMAR, Nakheel and Dubai World, have brought state-of-the-art-technology to India’s infrastructure development, while India’s top companies in the energy and information technology sectors are flourishing in the UAE. These relations will receive a fresh impetus when major investment and joint venture projects, presently under consideration, are realized.

The year 2007 also witnessed the successful implementation of the general amnesty announced by the UAE Government: more than 100,000 Indians took advantage of it to return to their homeland, while nearly 50,000 others were able to regularize their stay on the basis of alternative employment. India and UAE have set up a bilateral mechanism to address all matters pertaining to the Indian workforce in the UAE so that mutual contractual obligations are fulfilled even as the developmental needs of the UAE are realized.

It is against this background that the leaders of India and the GCC countries have agreed on the need to build up a long-term, multifaceted strategic partnership founded on substantial political and economic ties, which will work towards ensuring the security and stability of the region by bringing together the abundant resources that are available with the countries concerned.

Talmiz Ahmad
Ambassador of India