India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) held the 14th meeting of the High Level Joint Task Force on Investments in Mumbai on 28 September 2026, with a fresh UAE intent to invest another $25 billion in India and a joint target to take bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032. The meeting was co-chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). On the same weekend, India and Fiji held their second defence Joint Working Group meeting in New Delhi to expand military training, maritime security and defence industry ties.
What Was Decided at the 14th India UAE Investment Task Force Meet?
The 14th meeting of the India UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (HLJTFI) was held in Mumbai on 28 September 2026. The India UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments is a senior forum that reviews investment opportunities, tracks trade agreements and helps solve problems faced by investors in both countries. The meeting was co-chaired by Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, also joined the discussions.
The task force was set up in 2013 to promote trade, investment and economic ties between India and the UAE. Since then it has met almost every year to clear bottlenecks and open new sectors for investment. The 12th meeting was held in Mumbai in October 2024 and the 13th meeting was held in Abu Dhabi in September 2025. The 14th meeting continued that steady rhythm and focused on faster implementation of past promises.
Two headline numbers came out of the Mumbai meeting. The UAE has already invested about $25 billion in India and has now shown intent to invest another $25 billion in the near future. In the longer term, the UAE aims to take its total investment in India to $100 billion. India and the UAE also agreed to double bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032. Bilateral merchandise trade has already crossed $100 billion, up from about $60 billion when the trade pact came into force.
The two sides listed priority areas for the next phase of investment. These include ports and shipping, shipbuilding, space, startups, stock markets, food parks and food security, logistics, financial technology and artificial intelligence. Goyal said India offers stability and predictability at a time when global supply chains face pressure from conflict in West Asia and high energy prices.
What Is the India UAE CEPA and Bilateral Investment Treaty?
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is a free trade agreement between India and the UAE. A free trade agreement is a pact that lowers or removes taxes on imports, which are called tariffs, and makes rules simpler for business. The India UAE CEPA was signed in 2022 and came into force on 1 May 2022. It was the first bilateral trade deal of its kind signed by the UAE and one of the fastest trade deals negotiated by India.
Under the CEPA, tariffs were reduced or removed on more than 80 percent of products. Service providers from the UAE got easier access across 11 sectors and more than 100 sub sectors. The pact also set clear rules on customs, technical standards, government purchases and investor confidence. In the four years after it started, bilateral trade grew by about 37 percent. UAE exports to India rose by about 41 percent and Indian exports to the UAE rose by about 30 percent, with strong growth in gems and jewellery, electrical machinery, mineral fuels and aircraft parts.
The second pillar is the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT). A Bilateral Investment Treaty is a legal pact that protects investors from one country who put money in the other country and gives them a fair process to settle disputes. India and the UAE signed a new BIT on 13 February 2024 during the Prime Minister’s visit to Abu Dhabi. It entered into force on 31 August 2024 and replaced the earlier investment protection pact signed in December 2013.
The India UAE BIT 2024 assures minimum standards of treatment, protection against unfair seizure of assets and a neutral forum for dispute settlement through arbitration after local remedies are tried for three years. At the same time, it keeps the right of the state to regulate in public interest and excludes taxation, government purchases, subsidies and compulsory licences from claims. The task force in Mumbai reviewed the working of both the CEPA and the BIT and discussed related work on double taxation rules, local currency settlement for trade in rupees and dirhams, linking of payment systems such as India’s UPI and the UAE’s AANI, cooperation on central bank digital currencies and a Virtual Trade Corridor to cut paperwork and time.
How Is the UAE Investing in India Through ADIA?
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) is a sovereign wealth fund owned by the Government of Abu Dhabi. A sovereign wealth fund is a state owned pool of money that invests surplus income, often from oil, in global assets to earn steady returns for future generations. ADIA was established in 1976 and is headquartered in Abu Dhabi. It is one of the largest such funds in the world, with estimated assets of more than $1.1 trillion across equities, fixed income, infrastructure, private equity and property.
ADIA plays a central role in the UAE’s India portfolio because its Managing Director co-chairs the task force. The UAE is India’s seventh largest source of foreign direct investment. Foreign direct investment means long term investment by a foreign company or fund to build or own productive assets in another country. Cumulative UAE investment in India stood at about $25.59 billion between April 2000 and March 2026. Indian firms have also invested about $15.26 billion in the UAE, which shows two way capital flow.
Recent activity shows how this channel works in practice. ADIA has set up a subsidiary in GIFT City in Gujarat to invest through India’s international financial centre. GIFT City, or Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, is India’s special zone for global finance with easier rules for foreign funds. ADIA has joined investments in Indian banks, infrastructure projects with the National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF) and large public offers in Indian stock markets. The Mumbai meeting also discussed Bharat Mart, a planned trade facility in the UAE for Indian products, a food park in Ahmedabad to link Indian farms with UAE food security needs and an Invest India office in Dubai to guide UAE investors.
| Indicator | Figure (as reported after the 14th meeting) |
|---|---|
| UAE investment already made in India | About $25 billion |
| Fresh UAE investment intent in near future | Another $25 billion |
| Long term UAE investment aim | $100 billion |
| Bilateral merchandise trade in 2025-26 | $101.25 billion |
| Joint trade target | $200 billion by 2032 |
| India’s exports to UAE in 2025-26 | $37.36 billion |
| India’s imports from UAE in 2025-26 | $63.89 billion |
Why Is Energy Cooperation Central to India UAE Ties?
Energy is the most urgent part of the India UAE partnership because India imports most of its oil and gas and the UAE is a reliable nearby supplier. After the Mumbai meeting, Goyal said India is exploring the UAE as a larger source of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). LNG is natural gas cooled to liquid form for easy transport by ship, while LPG is the gas commonly used in Indian homes for cooking. India wants long term supply deals to protect households and industry from sudden price jumps.
The two sides are also working to expand cooperation on crude oil storage and strategic petroleum reserves. A strategic petroleum reserve is an emergency stock of crude oil that a country stores underground or in tanks for use during wars, blockades or supply shocks. This work builds on energy pacts announced during the Prime Minister’s visit to the UAE in May 2026, which covered crude storage, LNG and LPG infrastructure and long term LPG supply. At a time when trade was briefly hit by tensions linked to Iran and the United States and shipping risks in the region, Goyal said India UAE trade is returning to pre disruption levels and energy security is key to that recovery.
Does the UAE Support India on Defence and Strategic Issues?
The UAE is a close strategic partner of India with growing defence and security cooperation across all three services. This partnership is guided by a Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation signed in 2003 and reviewed through the Joint Defence Cooperation Committee, along with regular Army to Army, Navy to Navy and Air to Air staff talks.
Defence ties include joint exercises, training exchanges, naval port calls and cooperation on maritime security in the Arabian Sea and western Indian Ocean. The best known Army exercise is Desert Cyclone, the bilateral drill between the Indian Army and the UAE Land Forces that focuses on urban operations and sharing of best practices. The two sides also cooperate on counter terrorism, intelligence sharing, extradition of wanted persons and cyber security. In May 2026, India and the UAE signed fresh pacts on energy, defence and artificial intelligence alongside new investment announcements, which underlines how trade, technology and security now move together.
India UAE ties also rest on people and connectivity. More than 3.5 million Indians live in the UAE, the largest expatriate community there, and the UAE is India’s third largest trading partner and second largest export destination. India, in turn, is the UAE’s second largest trading partner after China. This depth explains why the UAE has often backed closer political coordination with India in regional forums, even as both countries keep independent foreign policies.
What Was Discussed at the Second India Fiji Defence Meeting?
The second India Fiji Bilateral Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting was held in New Delhi on 28 September 2026. A Joint Working Group is an official level body where officers from two governments meet regularly to review past decisions and fix the agenda for future cooperation. The meeting was organised under the defence cooperation framework between India’s Ministry of Defence and Fiji’s defence establishment.
The two sides discussed a wide set of subjects of mutual interest. These included military training and capacity building, service to service engagements between the armies, navies and air forces, maritime security, cyber training, defence industry collaboration and stronger institutional links between the two armed forces. Capacity building means training, equipment support and skill development that helps a smaller force handle new tasks on its own.
Both sides expressed satisfaction with the growing pace of defence exchanges and agreed to expand cooperation in areas of mutual benefit. India repeated the importance it gives to Fiji and other Pacific Island Countries in its vision of a free, open, inclusive and secure Indo-Pacific. The Indo-Pacific is the combined ocean space of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, which carries more than half of global maritime trade and is central to India’s security outlook.
Why Does Fiji Matter to India in the Indo-Pacific?
Fiji is a Pacific island nation in Oceania with its capital at Suva, and India’s links with Fiji go back to 1879. In that year, Indian workers were first taken to Fiji under the indenture system by the British administration to work on sugarcane plantations. Between 1879 and 1916, about 60,553 Indians reached Fiji. These workers, remembered as Girmitiyas, stayed back and shaped Fiji’s society. Today about 300,000 people of Indian origin, nearly 37 percent of Fiji’s population, live in Fiji along with about 2,300 Indian nationals.
Diplomatic ties started even before Fiji’s independence in 1970. India opened a Commissioner’s office in Fiji in 1948 to look after people of Indian origin, which later became the High Commission of India in Suva. Fiji opened its High Commission in New Delhi in 2004. The relationship gained fresh energy after Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Fiji in November 2014, the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister in more than three decades, and launched the Forum for India Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC). FIPIC is India’s main platform for engaging 14 Pacific island nations on development, climate action and capacity building.
Defence cooperation rests on a Memorandum of Understanding on Defence Cooperation signed in 2017. In August 2025, Prime Minister Modi and Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka adopted an action plan to deepen defence ties, with Indian support for maritime security training and equipment, cooperation on United Nations peacekeeping, military medicine, White Shipping information exchange and cyber security. White Shipping information means data on commercial ships that helps navies track movement and spot threats. India also set up a defence wing in its High Commission in Suva and gifted ambulances and agricultural drones to Fiji. The September 2026 working group meeting carries this plan forward at a time when Pacific island ports, undersea cables and shipping lanes face growing strategic attention.
Key Takeaways
- The 14th India UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments was held in Mumbai on 28 September 2026 and was co-chaired by Piyush Goyal and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
- The task force was established in 2013 to promote trade and investment and to resolve investor issues between India and the UAE.
- The UAE has invested about $25 billion in India, has shown intent to invest another $25 billion, and aims for a total of $100 billion in the long term.
- India and the UAE set a joint target to double bilateral trade to $200 billion by 2032 after crossing $100 billion in merchandise trade.
- The India UAE CEPA came into force on 1 May 2022 and the India UAE Bilateral Investment Treaty was signed on 13 February 2024 and entered into force on 31 August 2024.
- The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, established in 1976 and headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds and a key channel for UAE investment in India.
- The second India Fiji Bilateral Joint Working Group meeting was held in New Delhi on 28 September 2026 and covered military training, maritime security, cyber training and defence industry collaboration under the 2017 defence cooperation pact.
