Foreign Secretary Shri Vikram Misri paid an official visit to the United Arab Emirates on 7 May 2026 where he held meetings with H.E. Reem Al Hashimy, the UAE Minister of State and Special Envoy for India, as well as H.E. Khaldoon Al Mubarak, MD and CEO of Mubadala Investment Company, to review the India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and discuss global issues of mutual interest. The visit comes shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly condemned the Fujairah attacks, describing the targeting of civilians and infrastructure as unacceptable.
What Happened?
According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA),during the meeting the two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation between India and the UAE. Both sides expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved in implementing decisions taken during the January 2026 visit of UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to India and the February 2026 visit of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The discussions covered ongoing cooperation in areas such as trade, investment, economic partnership, energy, connectivity, defence and security, fintech, healthcare, education, culture, and people-to-people ties, while building on the outcomes of the 16th Joint Commission Meeting and the 5th Strategic Dialogue co-chaired in December 2025 by India’s External Affairs Minister and the UAE’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Foreign Secretary Misri also met with Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Managing Director and CEO of Mubadala Investment Company. Their discussions revolved around bolstering investment flows and deepening technological and strategic sector collaboration. The meeting highlighted the expanding role of sovereign investment partnerships in shaping the trajectory of bilateral ties.
The two sides also explored new initiatives aimed at further strengthening the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and exchanged views on developments in West Asia as well as other regional and global issues of mutual interest. The meeting highlighted the growing strategic relationship between India and the United Arab Emirates.
A trilateral meeting under the India–France–UAE framework saw the participation of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri alongside H.E. Reem Al Hashimy and H.E. Martin Briens of France. The three parties renewed their commitment to the trilateral partnership and finalised a structured roadmap accompanied by clear timelines. The initiative, first established in September 2022 at the UN General Assembly, aims to expand cooperation in energy (especially solar and nuclear), climate change and biodiversity protection in the Indian Ocean region, defence (joint development and co-production), health security, technological innovation, and cultural heritage promotion.
Why This Timing Matters?
As mentioned earlier, the meeting follows the Iranian attack on the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone on 4 May 2026, in which a drone strike caused a fire that injured three Indian nationals.
The UAE Ministry of Defence reported that its air defences also intercepted twelve ballistic missiles, three cruise missiles and four drones launched from Iran. Prime Minister Modi condemned the attack and India expressed solidarity with the UAE. The Fujairah and Khor Fakkan ports have become strategically important as they lie outside the Strait of Hormuz, on the Gulf of Oman coast. With the UAE’s exit from OPEC+ on 1 May 2026, it is no longer bound by the production quotas typically imposed on OPEC+ members, allowing it to better meet its full capacity and satisfy global energy demand. Combined with the existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, which carries UAE crude directly to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, this gives Abu Dhabi greater room to route exports around the Strait of Hormuz, reducing its exposure to any Iranian effort to disrupt the chokepoint.
As one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, India is already the third-largest consumer of crude oil, underscoring petroleum’s continued role in mobility, logistics, and industry. Looking ahead, India’s energy demand is projected to grow faster than nearly any other major economy through 2035, and by 2050 the country is expected to account for over 23 per cent of global incremental energy demand, the highest for any nation. Against this backdrop of rising West Asian tensions and the strategic vulnerabilities posed by the Strait of Hormuz, securing stable energy supplies has become imperative for India. Strengthening bilateral relations with the UAE, whose ports such as Fujairah and Khor Fakkan lie outside the Strait of Hormuz, offers India a reliable pathway to ensure uninterrupted energy flows and safeguard its long-term economic growth.
Moreover, in 2025, Saudi Arabia signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan, and talks with Qatar are reportedly ongoing. Amid the growing rivalry between the UAE and Saudi Arabia, forging a strategic defence partnership with India would offer mutual benefits for both the UAE and India.
Going Forward
The visit of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri to the United Arab Emirates highlights the growing strategic importance of the India-UAE partnership amid rising tensions in West Asia. Following the Fujairah attacks and concerns over the security of the Strait of Hormuz, India is increasingly focused on securing stable energy supply routes critical to its long-term economic growth. Ports such as Fujairah and Khor Fakkan, located outside the Strait of Hormuz, enhance the UAE’s value as a strategic energy partner.
These developments suggest that India is increasingly positioning itself as a balancing and stabilising actor in West Asia. The India-UAE relationship is no longer confined to trade and expatriate ties; it is becoming a multidimensional strategic partnership shaped by energy security, defence cooperation, regional rivalries, and emerging geopolitical alignments. As instability in West Asia continues to influence global energy markets and strategic competition, the deepening India-UAE partnership is likely to become a key pillar of India’s broader foreign policy and economic security architecture in the coming decades.
Additionally, the strengthening of the India-France-UAE trilateral also reflects the rise of flexible strategic partnerships focused on energy, defence, technology, and regional stability. Going forward, India, the UAE, and France are expected to develop a formal roadmap for deeper cooperation, while regional tensions and security concerns are likely to remain central to diplomatic engagements in the coming months.
Misri’s visit also lays the ground for Prime Minister Modi’s own stopover in Abu Dhabi around 15 May 2026, en route to Italy, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands, where he will participate in the third India-Nordic Summit. The Prime Minister’s short halt is expected to include a meeting with President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan focused on the regional situation, energy security, and the next steps in bilateral cooperation. Coming days after the Fujairah attack and the UAE’s OPEC+ exit, the stopover signals that India sees Abu Dhabi as a first stop on its way to other capitals, not an afterthought. It also follows a wider Indian outreach to the Gulf in recent weeks, with the External Affairs Minister, the petroleum minister and the National Security Adviser separately engaging the UAE, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.
The most consequential file the two sides are quietly working on is the Strategic Defence Partnership. In January 2026, India and the UAE signed a Letter of Intent to move towards a formal framework agreement covering defence industrial collaboration, advanced technology, training, interoperability, special operations, cyber, and counter-terrorism. Misri’s talks in Abu Dhabi, and the army-to-army and navy-to-navy engagements that preceded them, are part of the run-up to that framework being finalised. This matters for three reasons. First, it converts a long-standing transactional defence relationship into one with co-production and co-development at its core, slotting into the Make-in-India and Make-in-Emirates tracks. Second, it gives India a defence foothold in the Gulf at a moment when Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have a mutual defence pact and Riyadh-Doha talks are reportedly underway, with the result that the regional security map is being redrawn around India rather than waiting for it. Third, by tying defence cooperation to energy security, port access outside the Strait of Hormuz and sovereign-fund investment, it turns the India-UAE relationship into a single integrated bet rather than a set of parallel deals. For Delhi, that bet is the closest thing it has to an insurance policy on the western flank of the Indian Ocean.