Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Friday met the visiting UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, and held discussions on several key issues concerning the two nations, including bilateral trade, while reaffirming the commitment to deepen the India-UAE partnership.
Taking to X, Piyush Goyal wrote: “Honoured to welcome H.E. Dr. @ThaniAlZeyoudi, the UAE’s Minister of Foreign Trade, and congratulated him on assuming his new role. Our discussions focused on expanding bilateral trade and investment in key sectors such as infrastructure, energy and technology. We reaffirmed our shared commitment to deepening the India-UAE partnership and unlocking new avenues of growth together.”
Notably, the UAE Minister’s visit comes at a time when India is looking to diversify trading partnerships to counter the impact of US tariffs. The UAE is among India’s top trading partners.
Though many details related to the talks were not immediately available, according to sources, the discussions are expected to build on the strong economic ties fostered under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).
The CEPA has completed three years since its signing on February 18, 2025.
An official statement notes that the CEPA is a full and deep agreement which was signed on 18th February 2022, during a virtual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It entered into force on May 1, 2022.
Since the signing of CEPA, bilateral merchandise trade has nearly doubled from $43.3 billion in FY 2020-21 to $83.7 billion in 2023-24.
During the current FY till January 2025, it reached $80.5 billion. CEPA has been successful in realising its potential for diversification of the trade basket as non-oil trade touched $57.8 billion in FY 2023-24, accounting for more than half of the total trade.
In terms of India’s exports, non-oil exports reached $27.4 billion in FY 2023-24, recording an average growth of 25.6 per cent since CEPA entered into force.
At the sectoral level, besides refined crude oil products and gems and jewellery products, electrical machinery and equipment, light and medium high technology goods like boilers, generators and reactors, and organic and in-organic chemicals have been major achievers. Besides, at the product level, smartphones have emerged as a major item of export with shipments valued $2.57 billion bound for the UAE during FY 2023-24.
