Muktesh K. Pardeshi, a Secretary overseeing India’s relations with the Gulf and West Asia & North Africa (WANA) regions at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, confirmed that the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are India's largest regional trading partner, with the value of India's trade with GCC countries recorded at around US$184 billion from April 2022 to March 2023.

During a meeting with a delegation of UAE and GCC media currently visiting India, Pardeshi expressed his pride in the historical friendship between India and the GCC.

For his part, Shailesh Pathak, Secretary-General of ICC India and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), said that the strategic partnership between the UAE and India is a unique model of constructive cooperation between countries, evidenced by the two countries' many developmental achievements.

In a statement to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of a meeting organised by FICCI with the GCC media delegation, Pathak said that the UAE and India have a long-standing and close friendship, highlighting the major contributions of the UAE-India Strategic Partnership Agreement and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) to UAE-India cooperation.

He added that, since the UAE-India CEPA came into force on 1st May, 2022, trade between the two countries has seen significant growth, reaching $85 billion last year.

Pathak stressed that the recent official visit of President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to the Republic of India, specifically to the Indian state of Gujarat, and his participation as a guest of honour in the tenth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, reflected ongoing efforts of the UAE and India to boost their cooperation, noting that it is not limited to economic areas, but also includes other areas related to cultural convergence between the two peoples.

He welcomed the visit of the GCC media delegation to the Republic of India, stressing that the GCC-India relations are evolving and seeing significant growth at all levels.

For his part, Aseem Mahajan, Joint Secretary for the Gulf at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, affirmed that the UAE and the Republic of India have strong strategic relations, noting that the UAE is the third-largest trading partner of the Republic of India and the second-largest export destination for his country.

He told WAM that the mutual visits between the two countries have contributed significantly to broadening the scope of their cooperation across all sectors.

Mahajan underscored the significance of the recent visit of the UAE President to India, which saw the signing of many memorandums of understanding between the two countries.

He added that the UAE-India bilateral cooperation stretches across diverse areas, giving examples like the plans to establish the first branch of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Delhi in Abu Dhabi, which would be the first branch of the institute outside India.