NEW DELHI: Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Feb. 19 on the sidelines of the AI Impact Summit, as the two sides highlighted the breadth of ties between the United Arab Emirates and India. The meeting took place during summit events bringing together government leaders and technology stakeholders, with the agenda focused on areas where the two countries have pursued deeper cooperation in recent years.
Officials said the talks reviewed the UAE-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and discussed collaboration across economic and technology sectors. The leaders also touched on trade, investment, innovation and knowledge exchange, according to readouts released after the meeting. From the UAE side, the delegation included Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence Omar Sultan Al Olama, along with senior officials involved in investment and advanced technology portfolios.
India’s Prime Minister’s Office said the leaders noted progress since the two countries elevated relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, with cooperation spanning defense and security, trade and investment, education and culture. The readout also referenced Feb. 18 as marking four years since the signing of the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, saying trade and investment ties have expanded during that period.
Bilateral agreements and investment links
During the visit, India’s Prime Minister’s Office said the two sides finalized a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in health and medicine between the countries’ health ministries. It also cited steps linked to financial services and investment channels, including the planned opening of an office of Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, commonly known as GIFT City, a financial hub in the western Indian state of Gujarat.
Technology cooperation featured prominently alongside the leaders’ meeting. India’s Prime Minister’s Office said a term sheet was agreed between the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, known as C-DAC, and the UAE-based technology group G42 and Mohamed Bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence for deployment of a supercomputer cluster in India. In a separate announcement on Feb. 20, Abu Dhabi officials said G42, MBZUAI and Cerebras Systems partnered with C-DAC to establish a national-scale AI supercomputer in India with 8 exaflops of compute capacity.
Summit backdrop and next steps
Abu Dhabi officials said the planned system would support India’s national AI programs, with data remaining within India under governance frameworks defined by Indian authorities. The India-AI Impact Summit ran from Feb. 16 to Feb. 20 at Bharat Mandapam, a major convention venue in New Delhi, and was framed around the themes of People, Planet and Progress. The summit’s schedule included leader-level sessions alongside meetings involving researchers, startups and industry.
India’s Prime Minister’s Office said Modi welcomed Switzerland’s initiative to host the next AI summit, to be followed by the UAE. The Feb. 19 meeting in New Delhi formed part of a series of engagements around the summit and the wider bilateral agenda, spanning health cooperation, financial sector presence in GIFT City and advanced computing collaboration linked to India’s AI mission, officials said the talks reinforced the broader India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – By Content Syndication Services.