External affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar has said that India, UAE, US and Israel or also termed as West Asian Quad will be meeting in the coming next week. In response to a question at the India Pavilion at the Dubai Expo, EAM said, “You know, we had the initial meeting a month ago…that was hybrid meeting…we had to have follow up session on that. We agree on exactly how we go…that follow up meet will take place in coming weeks probably in Dubai.”
The West Asian quad met on 18th, during EAM’s Israel visit, with, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed and US Secretary of state Antony Blinken joining virtually. Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and Indian EAM were together in person. One of the key focus of the quad meet was issues like trade, climate and maritime security.
The quad meet is seen as one of the key dividends of the Abraham accords that saw normalization of ties between Israel and the United Arab emirates. UAE was the first country in the Persian Gulf to normalize ties with Israel. India has strong ties with both Israel and UAE in West Asia and since the accords were signed, they have worked in a trilateral arrangement. In May, the 3 countries signed the first-ever pact that involves producing robotic solar cleaning technology in India for a project in UAE by an Israel based company Ecoppia. The trilateral partnership was initiated by the International Federation of Indo-Israel Chambers of Commerce (IFIICC).
During the press conference, the question was asked on Indian covid vaccine–COVAXIN’s getting recognition by UAE, to which Indian envoy to UAE, Pavan Kapoor said, “UAE has clearly said in the past, they recognize all WHO recognized vaccines. COVAXIN is WHO recognized and it is very much recognized by UAE”. WHO gave authorization to the Indian vaccine earlier this month. New Delhi has also formally taken up with UAE, the need to remove rapid tests for covid at the airport given increased vaccination, low level of covid positive cases in India.
Indian expatriate community of around 3.3 million is the largest ethnic community in UAE constituting roughly about 30 per cent of the country’s population. Among the Indian States, Kerala is the most represented followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Indians from the Northern States also form a significant portion of the UAE Indian population.
During the Dubai visit, EAM had meetings with UAE FM Zayed, FM Jean Asselborn of Luxembourg, Slovakia FM Ivan Korcok and Cyprus FM Nikos Christodoulides. The FM of Cyprus also paid a visit to India Pavilion at the mega expo.
