25 January 2017

News Report: UAE to Tank Up India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves

India-UAE cooperation in the field of energy security will be given a further fillip during the visit of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi to India.

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) — Energy security will be another area in which India and UAE will sign an agreement as both the countries have decided to raise their energy cooperation to the level of strategic partnership.

“We are adding a new relationship to this, from being a seller, UAE has decided to become India’s strategic partner in energy sector and we will be investing and filling up out our key Strategic Petroleum Reserves. We hope that the negotiations will conclude today and we will sign a MoU on that,” Ministry of External Affairs Secretary, Amar Sinha told media on Tuesday.

Bilateral trade will be another area in which both India and UAE will strengthen the cooperation as UAE has pledged to invest $ 75 billion in India.

“UAE remains one of our major trading partners. It’s a gateway to lot of our exports in Central Asia and Africa. UAE will invest in India $ 75 billion over the next couple of years. During the visit we are hoping that a MoU will be signed between their investment fund and our NIIF (National Investment and Infrastructure Fund),” Amar Sinha added.

India and UAE will also boost maritime transport so as to increase the people and people contact and increase tourism, especially cruise tourism. India is also looking at visa exemptions for official and special passport holders.

This story first appeared on Sputnik & is reposted here with permission.