UAE Minister for Economy & Tourism Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri has observed that the UAE-India story in these times of global volatility is a different one — that of trust, openness and a long-standing vision.

“We are through global volatility. The context is changing every three months as grey and black swans are emerging. But, the UAE and India are building bridges, not barriers,” Mr. Abdulla Al Marri said on Wednesday (July 24, 2025), expressing confidence that the two countries would together grow towards a resilient future.

Addressing an investor meet jointly organised by Investopia, the CII and the AP Economic Development Board in Vijayawada, he said the UAE and India had made rapid strides in bilateral trade after signing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2021.

India became the UAE’s third largest trading partner and their non-oil trade was expected to surpass $100 billion by the end of 2030. Non-oil exports to India account for about 13.50% of the UAE’s total exports, he pointed out.

Talking about Andhra Pradesh, he said the State was known for its entrepreneurial spirit and that he was astonished with infrastructure, the availability of natural resources, especially rivers and its long coastline, and rich human capital.

He expressed confidence that A.P. would become a strategic node in the ‘India-UAE economic corridor’ by virtue of having abundant resources and good connectivity, while promising to facilitate dialogues that would bring in synergies and investments, including venture capital, to the State.

Participating in a post-inaugural  session, IT & HRD Minister Nara Lokesh pitched the idea of ‘data embassies’, saying that data centres would act as a nucleus for kickstarting massive economic activities.

This was the foresight A.P. had way back in 2017–18, even before the ChatGPT existed in its current form. That was the time when A.P. envisioned Visakhapatnam as the data city of India, he said.

“The last five years have been a setback, but now we are accelerating the journey. We want to lead the entire data revolution in India, and believe Visakhapatnam has the right ingredients,” Mr. Lokesh asserted.

Government-to-Government collaborations were critical for India and the UAE to make further progress in their bilateral relations, Mr. Lokesh added.