The significance of the opening of a large temple in Abu Dhabi last Tuesday, built by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, extends beyond religion and represents a major step forward in the relations between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and India. The temple was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in what was his seventh visit to the UAE since 2014, which speaks volumes about the outreach by India. The domestic political messaging of Modi opening a second Hindu temple in a matter of 20 days with elections just a few weeks away is obvious. What’s not so obvious is the international significance.

It announces to the world that the old attitudes that governed UAE-India relations are now undergoing a welcome change. If all goes well, India and the Emirates should soon go back to the old texture of the historical relationship that the entire west coast of India had with the region until the Turkic invasions into north India happened. If the earlier encounter was based on trade and culture, the later one was military and violent. The first lasted about 500 years and was entirely benign, unlike the encounters that followed after the 12th century. In other words, the Indo-Arabic relations were very different from Turkic driven Indo-Islamic ones. That said what, other than religion, should buttress this hopeful conclusion? Primarily economic relations and following that, strategic ones. The economic relations are now being strengthened, the latest brick being the signing of the bilateral investment treaty. This is a real shift in Indian policy which has been terminating old treaties en masse, 66 out of 75 have been terminated or re-negotiated. After all, the UAE is in the top four of foreign investors in India. There will now be a strong focus on energy security.

Bilateral trade, currently at about $85 billion, is expected to increase to $100 billion in a few years. It will also soon be possible to use Rupay and UPI in the UAE. In all eight agreements were signed, including the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor. This last could be a real game changer as the main land route to the West. China, which has been struggling to establish just such a land route, will be worried by the direction in which things are moving. To help all this along, there is now the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that has been in force since May 2022.

Finally, there’s the crucial strategic aspect. It’s now been forgotten that British India provided the bulwark to the defence of West Asia. This was done via naval and army forces. While we can rule out the latter, the former is very possible now. Indeed it’s already in view. Indian help in the region could also relieve some US naval forces. Overall, as diplomacy goes, it is noteworthy that the Modi government has done a great balancing act between the Shia and Sunni countries on the one hand, and the Jewish Israel, on the other.

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