'This is the closest India and the UAE have ever been': Reem Al-Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation

Exclusive Interview/ Reem Al-Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, the UAE

The year 2025 marks a decade of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s transformative engagement with the United Arab Emirates, solidifying bilateral ties as one of India’s most strategic global partnerships in the 21st century. The UAE is now India’s third-largest trading partner, with collaboration growing across diverse sectors, including defence, education, sustainability, culture and technology. The evolving nature of this relationship was underscored by the UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation, Reem Al-Hashimy, who recently visited New Delhi as part of an official delegation led by the UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The delegation was in India for the fourth Strategic Dialogue and the 15th Joint Commission meeting between the two nations.

In an exclusive interview with THE WEEK at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi, Al-Hashimy discussed the strong foundation of India-UAE relations and the vast potential for further growth. She also spoke of the deep-rooted people-to-people connections that have been integral to strengthening the partnership, reflecting on her own family’s ties to India. Her father, a former footballer, received medical treatment in India, and her mother remembers enjoying shopping in Mumbai. The doctors who attend to her three sons are also from India. Al-Hashimy emphasised that such personal connections have played a significant role in fostering closer bilateral ties. In her view, the India-UAE partnership has never been stronger or more promising.

Edited excerpts:

Q/ This is your fourth trip to India this year (2024), this time with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the UAE. Obviously, India is a very important partner for you. As these frequent trips show, there must be something brewing in bilateral ties.

A/ Yes, of course. I am very excited to share with you some of the really inspiring proof points in the relationship between the UAE and India. I have come a lot more than three times this year but on technical visits. But I have had the privilege of accompanying their royal highnesses at least three times in 2024. But if you look at the year before that and the year before that, you will see a handful of visits every year between both of us, both Indian leadership to the UAE, and the UAE leadership to India, which is indicative of a relationship that is really catapulting into new and exciting spaces.

The strength of this relationship is really across all of the different levels of government, whether from the most senior leadership level down to the ministerial levels and the undersecretary levels, and also between people to people and business to business. And add to it what has been happening between our two countries in the education and cultural space as well―you will see that student visits are also becoming more and more frequent. And so when we look at the world around us and when we see where India is going and when we look at where we have been with India already, we are not just reassured, but also excited about how much more we can do together. And hence the frequency of these very high-level visits, which always give an impetus for us to be able to do more and more.

Q/ What about the strategic point of view in bilateral ties? Are these visits used to discuss strategic ties going forward?

A/ Absolutely. They usually entail taking stock of where we are, looking at some of the challenges that we are both facing and studying how we could avoid those challenges and prevent them in the future. But it’s not a management exercise. These sessions are also creative, because we say, ‘What more can we do? Where else have we not been together?’ And we have created a few milestones in the last few years with one another, including the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). We have a large Indian community in the UAE. Many Emiratis visit India often. [So we started looking at] what is untapped, even though the trade relationship is quite strong.

And hence, the conversation started around whether we could liberalise trade further. Can we liberalise services further? Can we liberalise investment further? And suddenly, the slope is much more steep, because our trade has increased even more. Our investment has increased as well.

So if I look at CEPA, at the dirham-rupee exchange programme, at the work we are doing from the central bank perspective, now moving forward, there is so much we can do in technology together. That is also a priority for your government. There is so much we can do in energy together. And India has remarkably shifted its dynamic in just a short period, and there is still more that we can do together.

Q/ Are there any roadblocks at this point?

A/ There always are. The machinery of your system and the machinery of ours mean that there are going to be bumps along the road―administrative and bureaucratic. Despite that, you’ll be surprised that some very important agreements are being signed. Not everybody knows some of the challenges. Not everyone is aware of the challenges involved, nor does everyone fully understand what they entail or how they will move us forward. And so the best part of all of these is that we can speak to each other. We can debate with one another to say, ‘How come this has happened like this? Why isn’t this going on in that way?’ Likewise, the Indian side often tells us the same. And it is through those exchanges that we can strengthen both of our systems and create an interface that operates more seamlessly with one another.

Q/ But would you say, in your experience, that this is the closest the two countries have ever been?

A/ Yes. And the irony is that every time I think we have done something amazing together, we do better. Therein lies the strength of the relationship. It is a solid, respectful bond where you reach one peak, and you bask in it for just a few minutes, not very long. And then you say, ‘OK, where are the other peaks’? Because we have to keep doing more.

Q/ The UAE chose India as the first partner to sign CEPA, back in 2022. What was the reason that prompted you to select India? Two years later, how do you assess its success?

A/ India has been one of our largest trading partners even without CEPA. So one would think, why go there? We’re doing so well. But that teaches us something―even though things are going well, they could go so much better, looking for new terrain that hasn’t been tapped at all. In this context, I’ll just say green hydrogen, for example. Completely untapped, but something that we are both looking at together.

CEPA was about a transformative approach. It was to say, ‘With a country so large and an economy so diverse, can we afford to liberalise further? What would that look like? What would that mean? And how much would it take from resources, time, etc?’ Two years on, we have double-digit growth. We have sectors that we have opened up to one another that we had not understood before. And most importantly, entities have started to better understand and know each other. So beyond the strong government-to-government relationship, it has been a very strong signal for the private sector and for state-owned enterprises to say and to look at, as they review the roster of potential investment destinations, to say, ‘OK, what can we do more with India?’ So I would consider it incredibly positive. I think what we have to also study is that a lot of entities didn’t know that these opportunities existed. And so this is good, we have to keep advocating for it, keep explaining it, and keep increasing this connection between us.

Q/ We have set a target of reaching $100 billion in non-oil trade by 2030. Are we on track? What are the bottlenecks?

A/ We are on track. If you look at how the UAE’s economy is growing, since the CEPA with India, we have signed CEPAs with Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey and Australia. We were inspired a lot, actually, by what you have done with Australia. We studied your model and met with your teams who did this quite effectively with Australia. In South America, we opened up with Colombia, Chile and Costa Rica. We have a couple of others now, particularly the Mercosur (a South American trade bloc), which we are studying very closely and are hoping that in 2025, we’ll have an agreement there as well. What does this all mean? It means the UAE economy is growing exponentially. And if we grow exponentially, then we can better and more effectively absorb the growth that can come from your market as well.

We are five years out from 2030. We’ve often exceeded expectations, and not just met expectations. I have every confidence we’ll be able to do this with CEPA as well. And I’ll go back to how and why. There are more than 100 flights a day between our countries and we have a positive track record. Again, stumbling blocks notwithstanding, the proximity, the overall mindset, and the strength of the government-to-government contacts give the confidence, and the optimism that the future is bright.

Q/ There are many people who think that the connectivity could improve further, especially the number of flights.

A/ We certainly do. And it’s not an easy conversation with the Indian side, because this sector is also a very complex one for you. So we respect that. But we also are pushing. And those are some of the conversations we’re having in that spirit of ambition. In almost every session, we ask, ‘can we have more seats, because all of the seats are fully booked?’

Q/ What about the future of the rupee-dirham trade agreement, especially in the context of the emerging geopolitical realities? Some say it could challenge the primacy of the dollar.

A/ We have been pegged to the dollar for a long time, since our inception. And we will likely continue to be pegged to the dollar. But we are also members of BRICS. And we also recognise that creating and strengthening regional bonds is going to be very important. The dirham-rupee exchange facilitates [trade]. It is also a cost-effectiveness measure, because you don’t need to exchange effectively [using the dollar]. Despite this agreement having been in place for a little over a year now, it is still growing slowly. How do we jet-fuel this exchange and interaction to fully reap the benefits of what it means to have a rupee-dirham connection? The UAE doesn’t look at binary choices. And so the dollar continues to be important. There were over 53 conflicts that were burning conflicts, and over 200 protracted conflicts last year (2023). So the world is not safe. And that means you stand more closely with your friends and partners. But that does not mean that you reverse what you have been doing for a very long time as well. So it’s that question of healthy balance, which we continue to be deploying.

Q/ You are a new member of BRICS. Joining the group is one way of augmenting your presence on the world stage, and looking forward to multipolarity and multilateral institutions. Does the UAE believe that it is going to be the way forward?

A/ Yes. I think there are growing centres of gravity, not just one centre of gravity or two. And they differ in size and scale. We see the growth of what is called the middle powers―smaller in population, but prominent in economic force. So we have been an active player in the multilateral space. This year was the first year that the UAE was invited to the G7 in Italy. We have been a constant invited guest at G20. And when we were invited in South Africa to join BRICS, we took that opportunity wholeheartedly. I have to credit Team India, who supported our accession. Dammu Ravi, your chief negotiator on the BRICS side, is a highly regarded expert. And those types of forums allow us to better understand as well where we are moving and how we are moving. We hosted COP, another forum for multilateral engagement. We were hosts of Expo 2020 in Dubai which really brought the whole world together to try to address global challenges at a very difficult time in human history because we were still in the middle of a pandemic during that time. But we were able to host a pretty remarkable Expo. And so these kinds of forums signal new and different platforms to deepen ties.

Q/ COP was held this year in Azerbaijan. Developing countries feel that the $300 billion climate finance commitment was just too little, too late.

A/ I can’t speak about COP 29 in detail. But I can tell you in COP 28, the developing countries owned the room. And if you look at our loss and damage fund, which came into effect the first hour after the agenda was approved, it was in the spirit of recognising that those that are most vulnerable are the ones that are facing the greatest risk and the greatest challenge. Now, we are very conscious of not flipping back and forth; we believe in continuity, perseverance and constant effort. The area that I manage in our system, foreign aid development, has a very strong climate component as well. In the UAE, we will continue to listen to, address and build resilience in programmes that we put in place alongside other international partners in the most vulnerable countries.

As we prepare for COP 30 in Brazil, the first and foremost on the agenda is nature and how we preserve the carbon sinks that exist, be it the Amazon forests or the forests in Gabon, Congo or India. These are all conversations that we have been having since before COP 28, and we will be having way after the next COP. But what is so important―a little bit of this was covered in the spirit of Expo, and is part and parcel of the spirit of the UAE as well―is that independent of your wealth, size, or the continent you live in, you have a legitimate voice to not only be heard, but to be integrated in the final consensus, which is why the UAE consensus [of COP 28] was such a celebratory moment, not because it was the UAE consensus, but because everybody felt that it was their consensus, too.

That’s where the magic happens when an effort by somebody else feels as much as yours. And that little bit is also how and why the UAE has 200 different nationalities, despite all of their differences in culture, religion, language, tradition, in social class, they all feel it is their own. The UAE is theirs. It is not an Emirati neighbourhood, or an Indian neighbourhood, or a Lebanese neighbourhood. It is our collective neighbourhood, and that is not easy to do, for sure. And I say it is the decades and decades of institutionalisation in our system that allows for that expression of a church, a mosque and a temple, which we are so happy to host in the UAE right now.

Q/ Mitigating water scarcity is another area in which the UAE is putting in great effort to find new models of international cooperation. It is an issue of critical importance for India as well.

A/ We have often said that water is the new oil. Prime Minister Modi said there will be a tomorrow only if there is water. And in our holy text, the Quran, there is a verse that says that only from water can things become alive. So the sanctity of water, across all of our different religions, faiths and backgrounds is going to determine prosperity in the future. Our entire Arabian Gulf does not have a single river. Today the majority of GCC countries are dependent upon desalination plants for their water needs . So we feel strongly about it. We have worked very closely with the international community, of course, to put water on the agenda at COP 28. So COP28 had a water-focused theme, and so did the Expo.

We are going to be hosting the UN Water Conference in the UAE in 2026. We are looking at ways in which we can apply technology to better understand how to preserve water, generate water, and manage water resources. And this is a very exciting space, but also a very critical space as well. Our conference will be held in December 2026. I have looked at a lot of your water technology companies in India, like those that harvest air to water. So there are a couple of examples where we see that the solution exists, but how do you scale that solution? And how do you make it readily available for others in a cost-effective manner? I think that’s the next leap that we need to take together.

Q/ We see how important people-to-people contact in bilateral relations is. Do you see a larger role for the Indian diaspora in this context?

A/ It is critical because it makes sure that the relationship is not hollow. You can have very strong, overarching government-to-government, state-owned investments. But if you don’t have the layers that glue it all together from a people and human perspective, it is a hollow relationship. Both my parents speak Hindi. And that wouldn’t have happened if there wasn’t this people-to-people presence. From the Indian diaspora, we want to know more and learn more. So celebrations of festivals like Diwali, and understanding the many different types of Diwali. It is not one monolithic celebration once a year. There’s so much more about Diwali. It is also about understanding more about your cuisine, your poetry, your art and your history. We almost feel we don’t need to learn from each other. Because we know each other. We know Indians and you know us. My dad was a football player and he used to come here to India for medical treatment when he had injuries. All of our shopping was done in Bombay. I remember my mother saying about our curtains; those were bought from Bombay. ‘I got a very good discount,’ she would say.

So these types of things opened the path for me to say, take my children to an Indian doctor. There’s no way anybody other than an Indian doctor would treat them. It didn’t come from a vacuum. If my family and their families were not close, I wouldn’t just suddenly wake up and trust the most precious thing to somebody who speaks of a science and a framework that I don’t understand, which is Ayurveda, for example. And so I think this level of continuity brings a soul to a relationship. It brings the heart to it. And hence, it brings resilience. We need to be very mindful and conscious that we have that sense of resilience.

Q/ How inspiring was Firdaus, the all-woman ensemble orchestra led by A.R. Rahman, which performed at Expo 2020? We hear the project was conceived in 2019 during one of your conversations with Rahman.

A/ When we were designing the programme for the Expo, because the UAE is very well known for its amazing infrastructure and incredibly beautiful roads and buildings, we wanted the spirit of the Expo to be as evident as the buildings themselves, because not everything you build is actually visible. So how do we create and design a programme that can bring the world together? I selected it because I wanted it to be only women, not because I am against men. I have three boys. But because I wanted to give a platform and an opportunity for women to explore music under the legend himself, A.R. Rahman.

As Rahman was talking about creating music and what it takes to be able to do so, I was very inspired by saying, as we do the opening ceremony for the Expo, as we partake in different events, as different countries during the Expo want to talk of their national days or their national programmes, we have an orchestra, an orchestra made up of women from all around the world, and an orchestra that focuses primarily on home-grown music that Rahman helped curate and teach. So whether it’s a sitar, the Arabic oud, or the ney, which is like a flute, how do you bring those together? And so the idea of Firdaus was born. Since the Expo, the orchestra has continuously been active. When you see this group of inspiring young women who are, again, from all over the world coming together to create something special, it shows you that by really bringing the right mentorship and the right ambition, you can do so much.

Q/ You studied in the United States, in great universities like Harvard and Tufts, years ago. And you have been serving in the UAE government for nearly two decades. What changes have you witnessed in the UAE, and in the larger Middle East, between then and now, especially in the sociocultural domain?

A/ I went to university when I was quite young. I was also quite young when I was appointed as a minister. And in the last 17 years or so since I’ve been appointed, I would say what has really transformed things is digital technology. And so even in government work, way back then, people did not have as quick access and as much access about who they were meeting as we do now. I remember one example very specifically, which was in 2009 when I went to the Pacific Islands.

I went to Vanuatu, Kiribati, Tonga, Tuvalu and a few others. I went as part of a campaign for the hosting of the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi, led by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah, our foreign minister and deputy prime minister. And I had never heard of those countries before, although I am a student of international affairs. Who are they? What do they go through? And of all of the travelling I have done, and I have travelled the world, I have never felt that I was part of something so special as I did then, in 2009, when I went to the Pacific Islands. And I will tell you why. I was the first Emirati that they had ever engaged with. The first, not just woman, but the first government minister that had come. These islands are sinking, and are facing climate change in an unimaginable way. They would show me their playgrounds which were now all covered in water.

When you hear and see these stories that are so real, I remember their voice when we speak about COP. I remember the homes that they lost. And I think to myself, in five or ten years from now, how and what will further change? Because we have access to these technologies and projections into the future of what’s happening around us, we see things far more clearly. And I hope as well that if you can bring someone’s plight very close to you, you will be driven by the agency to try and make a positive impact. So I just hope that technology brings us closer, not just for the sake of coming close, but also for creating positive change.

Q/ Coming back to the people-to-people connect, what are your views on the potential of the education sector?

A/ The IIT, hopefully the IIM, and the IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) are all good seeds that have been planted for us to harvest years from now. And we will see those benefits. And it will be another layer of the strength of the relationship that we have. I am also the chairperson of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi. And with Sorbonne, we’ve also looked at how we encourage students from India to study at Sorbonne, but not necessarily go to Paris, which is much further and much more expensive. But that very same programmes are being delivered in Abu Dhabi today, closer to home. So it really does bring a very strong mix to the table. Now, I think we need to keep doing more and more of this. And if there are areas I would want to focus more, it would be on research and development. The UAE has developed and strengthened its capabilities in R&D tremendously. Underlying that is the technology aspect, whether it is quantum AI or supercomputing. Those are all very strong pillars in that regard.