Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi, the UAE Minister of Foreign Trade has discussed with Anand Sharma, Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry the potential for developing bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them in trade, economic and investment fields. The two sides also discussed the challenges before UAE investment in different Indian states and ways to overcome them in order to promote joint investments between India and the United Arab Emirates. They expressed satisfaction over the present level of trade and investment relations between them. Moreover, the two sides discussed the latest developments in free trade negotiations between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India and other relevant issues that are currently being negotiated. Sheikha Lubna declared that India is considered to be the first trade partner of the UAE and vice versa in the region as the value of non-oil trade between the two countries now amounts to more than $32 billion, which represent 15 % of the volume of foreign trade of UAE. She explained that the number of Indian companies in the UAE amounted to more than 105 companies in addition to hundreds of companies operating in free zones, which reflects the huge potential and various opportunities for trade and investment cooperation between UAE and India, according to a report of the UAE news agency "WAM" For his part, the Indian Minister of Commerce hailed the distinguished economic and trade relations between the UAE and India. Also, he stressed the importance of strengthening joint cooperation for the development of excellent partnership between the two sides. The meeting was attended by Abdullah Ahmed Al Saleh, Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Mohamed Sultan Abdullah Al Owais, the UAE Ambassador to India and other officials.
