How PM Narendra Modi's UAE visit offers a new strategic edge to India's Middle

East policy
By Sreeram Chaulia, | 16 Aug, 2015, 07.00AM IST
The Economic Times
This trip was not originally on the cards and has been suddenly put together on the PM's urging. The
parliamentary logjam and frustration about slow progress in domestic affairs must have propelled a
tour of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to be slipped in to showcase Modi in his strongest suit
firing up the substantial Indian diaspora, wooing wealthy Sheikhs in the Gulf to invest in the Indian
economy, and protecting India's national security interests.
Modi is setting foot in a theocratic Muslim country for the first time and that too a uniquely placed
one with extensive Indian presence in migration, energy and economics. The third largest trading
partner of India and the sixth biggest exporter of oil to India, UAE is religiously less conservative and
more open compared to other Gulf monarchies.
Indian Connection
These factors have been magnets for Indian migrants, who now number a whopping 30 per cent of
the UAE's population and contribute 20 per cent of India's total remittances. Modi's address to a
massive crowd of non resident Indians (NRIs) at the Dubai Cricket Stadium is a mega event meant to
buoy the spirits of our workers who make up more than 40 per cent of the UAE's labour force.
The expat worker model of the UAE's economic development has been carried largely on the
shoulders of NRIs, and Modi's dialogue with the rulers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai will include the issue
of improving their living conditions and lessening the exploitation of the blue collar category among
them.
Many symbolic gains await an Indian PM belonging to the Hindu nationalist BJP which is strong in
north India when he espouses the cause of NRIs in UAE 75 per cent of whom are Muslims and
Christians from the south Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. As Modi positions himself at the
Centre of the ideological spectrum, his stepping into the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi
will be a special moment to lift spirits of our NRI brethren working in harsh circumstances and to
project back in India that he respects each and every religion.
Not all the NRIs in the Gulf are engaged in lowpaying, backbreaking menial jobs. The UAE has
transformed into what scholars term as a 'dualistic economy', where there are traditionally lowskilled profiles like domestic helpers and construction labourers but also an advanced white collar
sector clustered around finance and informational technology.
28 per cent of high-skilled professionals entering the UAE happen to be Indians with technical and
managerial backgrounds.
Modi will want to encourage this trend so that India's image in the Middle East shifts from a cheap

labour exporting nation into a provider of knowledge-based manpower that spurs economic growth
in that region and ties it closer to India's service sector.
Oil that Matters
The official leg of the PM's UAE stay will be focused on tapping into Abu Dhabi's humongous oilfinanced sovereign wealth fund that has over $800 billion in assets. UAE's investors have in the past
been disappointed with India's "legacy issues" that hobbled their star companies like Etisalat, TAQA,
DP World and EMAAR. Modi will be in his usual reassurance mode to press home that India under
him is far more conducive and profitable for foreign direct investment (FDI).
Positive coverage in the UAE news media that his foreign visits have "already generated $19.78
billion in FDI inflow from 12 countries" and that "it will not be a hard task for the Indian leader to
lure more FDI" from the untapped surpluses of the Emirates have set the stage for a statistical blitz
of new investment announcements while the PM is in Abu Dhabi.
Just as Modi inherited a mess with regard to India's receptiveness towards FDI, he also carries the
burden of a history of our less-then-optimal collaboration on counterterrorism with the UAE. Before
he took over as PM, a top Indian Mujahideen (IM) Abdul Wahid slipped out of our hands after the
UAE released him, reportedly "under tremendous pressure from Pakistan" and due to laxity of our
own officialdom.
As many Indian citizens are still under captivity of the Islamic State (ISIS) and Pakistan remains intent
to use the UAE as an offshore base for anti-India terrorism, Modi will present a reinvigorated India
that is alert, alacritous and eager to partner with the Emirates to root out jihadist threats.
Geopolitically, Modi would aim to ramp up India's Defence Cooperation Agreement with the UAE
such that the western portion of the Indian Ocean is not conceded to the Chinese navy, which is
prowling the waters there in the guise of countering maritime piracy.
Our deeper demographic and geographic connections to the UAE and also our contrasting closeness
to Iran give Modi the platform to situate India as an ideal partner for stabilising the entire Gulf.