United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ambassador to India, Abdulnasser Jamal Alshaali, in an interview with The Hindustan Times said that his country has played a role in the past in addressing tensions between India and Pakistan, though any future role it might play would be up to both neighboring countries. 

Talking to Foreign Editor at The Hindustan Times, Rezaul Hasan Laskar about Pakistani Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks about asking the UAE to help build a bridge with India, the ambassador said his country has “played such a role in the past”, but future endeavours will depend on both India and Pakistan.

He also talked about expanding the gulf country’s relationship with India, saying that UAE is engaged in technical discussions to finalise a rupee-dirham arrangement for trade as part of the efforts to build on the free trade agreement signed by the two countries last year.

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He also said that UAE is keen on revisiting the arrangement for flights to India and introducing flights to more Indian destinations to help bring down airfare.

He said: “If you check the price of a ticket today, it’s more than 50 per cent higher than it used to be a few years back or it used to be pre-Covid. That’s already a market signal that we need to pay attention to because we are talking about this entire relationship and aviation is a crucial point in expanding this relationship.”

When asked about UAE’s plans to invest in food parks and renewable energy in India under the I2U2 framework, Jamal said the conversation between the Gujrat government and UAE is going on.

In recent times, both countries have grown close. In November 2022, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan visited India to further strengthen its bilateral relationship with India.