New Delhi: Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s high-profile visit to India marked a significant milestone in strengthening India-UAE relations.
The visit resulted in many impactful announcements across strategic sectors including maritime infrastructure, higher education, defense cooperation, and trade.
The two nations unveiled transformative plans to establish ship-repair clusters in Kochi, Kerala, and Vadinar, Gujarat. The collaboration facilitated through an MoU between Cochin Shipyard Ltd and DP World’s Drydocks Worldvis expected to enhance India’s ship-repair ecosystem by integrating global best practices and exploring offshore fabrication opportunities.
Day One of Hamdan bin Mohammed’s official visit to the Republic of India. pic.twitter.com/wymxXksS7w
— Dubai Media Office (@DXBMediaOffice) April 8, 2025
Simultaneously, the visit saw major developments in the education sector. India announced that Dubai will host overseas campuses of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT)—marking the first international expansion of these premier institutions.
These campuses, along with the previously established IIT-Delhi campus in Abu Dhabi, signal a major step in turning the UAE into a global hub for Indian higher education.
A touching moment came during Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where he presented the Indian leader with a replica of his grandfather Sheikh Rashid’s bisht—a traditional embroidered cloak, symbolizing the long-standing political and cultural camaraderie between the two nations.
Crown Prince Hamdan, met with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to explore deeper strategic defense cooperation, including co-production and co-development in the defense sector. Singh emphasized India’s readiness to collaborate more closely with the UAE in fostering regional peace and security.
In another gesture reflecting the historic friendship, Sheikh Hamdan gifted External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar an original newspaper coverage of his father Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s heroic intervention during the 1984 Indian Airlines Flight 421 hijacking, when he helped rescue Indian passengers.
The Crown Prince also met Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai to discuss trade opportunities under the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which has rapidly expanded bilateral trade.
Officials expect trade to surpass USD 97 billion, edging closer to the non-oil trade target of USD 100 billion.
The two countries will commence construction of Bharat Mart, a massive trade complex in the UAE, and launch the Virtual Trade Corridor (VTC) and MAITRI interface, all aimed at boosting logistics and export-import synergies.
Plans to allocate land for an India-UAE Friendship Hospital in Dubai also highlight their shared social development goals. All these moves are expected to directly benefit the 4.3 million-strong Indian diaspora in the UAE and approximately nine million Indians across the Gulf.
