India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar has described the enhancement of relations with the UAE as one of the top foreign policy achievements of the Narendra Modi government in its first five years in office, Wam reported.

“The sense of extended neighbourhood, the much greater interest in the Gulf, much closer linkages, these are big changes that we need to absorb,” Jaishankar said during the recent launch of his book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World. The book launch was hosted by the Observer Research Foundation.
The Indian Foreign Minister was responding to comments by Dr. Anwar Gargash, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, in praise of the book; an advance copy of the book had been sent to Dr. Gargash.

“Together we worked hard to develop bilateral relations with India,” Dr. Gargash said about Jaishankar, who was Foreign Secretary in the Modi government in its first term and was elevated to the Cabinet in the second term.

“India is emerging more and more as a global player,” Dr. Gargash said. “The more we know about India’s policies and thoughts, the more important it is.” He described the UAE as India’s “historical partner” and that many Indians live and contribute to UAE society.

Jaishankar spoke of a “broadening of mindset in India that we think of the Gulf as our neighbourhood, changes we need to take to a higher level.” He referred to a regular flow of high-level visits between India and the Gulf in both directions under the Modi government that did not take place before.

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Speaking at an event hosted by the US Atlantic Council think tank, Gargash said that “several Arab countries” are on the path of normalizing ties with Israel. The region needs a strategic breakthrough, he said.

“We are committed… as part of the international consensus on the two-state solution, and any embassy will be in Tel Aviv. So that is quite clear,” the minister said during the virtual session with the Atlantic Council Front Page. “The whole idea of suspending annexation, giving space and opportunity for negotiating the two-state solution, you know… it is evident where our embassy will be.”

The US is one of the few countries that has recognised Jerusalem as the Israel’s capital and moved its embassy there in 2017. President Trump at a campaign rally on August 17 said he did it for the evangelicals in the US.

Regarding the UAE’s role in finalising a peace deal between Israel and Palestine, Dr. Gargash said: “We don’t negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians.” He added the final shape of the emergence of the peace deal will be decided by Palestinians and Israelis. “But we all need to urge the Palestinians to engage and negotiate.”

“The UAE saw an opportunity because we’ve always been urged by the Palestinians to help in stopping annexation. By linking (the agreement) to the suspension of annexation, we came out with a good deal.

“This is going to be a warm peace because, unlike Jordan or Egypt, we have not fought a war with Israel,” Gargash said. Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and with Jordan in 1994.

Calling the UAE a dynamic Arab country that wants to “break a lot of barriers”, Dr. Gargash said that would not be possible with an “exclusivist view of the world through an Arab prism”.

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