India, UAE decide to settle trade in rupees

India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed agreements on trade settlement in national currencies and setting up a real-time link for cross-border transactions, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Abu Dhabi on Saturday to bolster cooperation in areas such as trade, energy and climate action.

- Shishir Gupta and Rezaul H Laskar

Educational authorities of the two nations also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on establishing a campus of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in Abu Dhabi after Modi arrived in the capital of the Emirates following a visit to France.

The UAE has had a special place in India's efforts in recent years to increase its engagement in areas ranging from trade to security with West Asian states. The Emirates are home to 3.5 million Indian expatriates, who account for about 30% of the country's population. Bilateral trade got a boost with the signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in February 2022.

PM Modi was received by Abu Dhabi crown prince Sheikh Khaled Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is in the line of royal succession and is chairman of the Abu Dhabi executive council, along with Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, who runs Mubadala Capital, one of the world's biggest sovereign wealth funds with assets worth $276 billion. Modi then held talks with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the Qasr Al Watan presidential palace.

Modi and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed witnessed the signing of two MoUs between the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Central Bank of UAE for establishing a framework to use national currencies for cross-border transactions and cooperation in interlinking payment and messaging systems, and another MoU between India's education ministry and Abu Dhabi authorities for setting up the new IIT Delhi campus.