India, UAE are natural partners, for rules-based fair trade, says minister

Highlighting that India and UAE have a deepening bond of brotherhood, Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday said that the two countries are natural partners and are for rules-based fair trade.

Goyal made these remarks after India and UAE signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

CEPA was signed during a meeting between Goyal and the UAE delegation led by Minister of Economy, Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri and Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.

Goyal said that India and UAE have been witnessing a growing synergy between the two countries.

“Ever since 2017, when both countries embarked on a comprehensive strategic partnership, covering a very wide array of subjects, ever since the growing bonds between the leaders of the two countries Prime Minister Narendra Modi and His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, we have been witnessing a growing synergy between the two countries and a deepening of the bonds of brotherhood between the people of the two countries,” Goyal said.

Talking about India and UAE’s relationship, Goyal said, “UAE and India are natural partners because we complement each other. There’s hardly any element of competition between these two major economies. We are both for rules-based fair trade.”

Talking about the comprehensive economic partnership, Goyal said “This is not an interim arrangement or an interim agreement. It’s a complete and comprehensive economic partnership, finalized in the shortest possible time that any such comprehensive agreement anywhere in the world has been witnessed in history.”