India-UAE Defence Partnership

During the 13th Joint  Defence Co-operation  Committee(JDCC) India and UAE have reaffirmed  the commitment  for strengthening the  bilateral defence co-operation. Defence Secretary Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh and UAE’s Under Secretary of Defense, Lt General Ibrahim Nasser M. Al Alawi represented the two sides respectively.The UAE representative  Alawi is  leading a high-level  defence delegation.The delegation is on a two day  official visit to India.Both the nations have  shown commitment to elevate the defence ties in terms of  trade,investment and people to people relations. The two sides agreed to enhance military training cooperation and discussed their respective training requirements. India offered to provide customised training courses tailored to the UAE’s needs. They also agreed to cooperate on maritime security through sharing of information.Both countries held discussions on training cooperation, defence industrial partnerships, and Service-to-Service engagements. They agreed to pursue joint manufacturing initiatives, including models similar to the collaboration between ICOMM (India) and CARACAL (UAE) for small arms production. The potential for co-developing next generation defence technologies in emerging areas such as Artificial Intelligence was also discussed, alongside opportunities in shipbuilding including refits and upgrades, and maintenance of common platforms. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Indian Coast Guard and the UAE National Guard to establish a framework for enhanced cooperation in search and rescue operations, pollution response, anti-piracy efforts, and related maritime security domains. In the run-up to the JDCC, India and UAE also held the 4th Army-to-Army, 9th Navy-to-Navy, and inaugural Air-to-Air Staff Talks from July 28-29, 2025. These deliberations focused on enhancing military exercises, training, and Subject Matter Expert Exchange.The visiting delegation is scheduled to call on the Raksha Rajya Mantri Shri Sanjay Seth on July 31, 2025, and will participate in the 2nd India-UAE Defence Industry Partnership Forum, co-inaugurated by the UAE Under Secretary and India’s Secretary (Defence Production) Shri Sanjeev Kumar.It is pertinent to mention that  both the nations enjoy a healthy defence relationship that has been established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s  important visit to the UAE in 2015.This partnership will enable the two nations to co-operate in various sectors in defence.Thus creating a new geo-strategic atmosphere that can develop an ecosystem that goes beyond the traditional  ties based on oil business.The UAE and India have been maintaining good relations from the inception and that has helped the two nations to expand the areas of engagement.This co-operation must be viewed in terms of emerging political situation in the West Asia and the Middle East.In Spite of the conflict among various neighbours in these regions India has maintained with almost all the nations in this region.The reason being the transparent Indian foreign policy and commitment to the world peace.India has been in the forefront of to stand for justice of all nations and particularly the persecuted people.This has enabled  goodwill for India. As such Indian presence in these regions is seen as a friendly move meant to bolster an inclusive engagement.Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi India is witnessing a proactive foreign policy that has an emphasis on  friendly relations based of reciprocal basis.Engagement with the UAE in defence sector will have wider ramifications and it give India an ample opportunity to internalise the emerging geo-strategic trends.Joint practices of the forces of the two nations will also lead to exploration of new strategic calculus.