UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi said that business partnerships between the United Arab Emirates and India have reached very advanced levels, through which the UAE has become the largest trading partner of India in the Middle East. India has become the first trade partner of the UAE in the world with the total value of the bilateral trade standing at about $45 Billion in 2009 according to preliminary estimates quoted by the UAE news agency "WAM". This was a significant growth in trade compared to the worth of $ 32 billion in 2008. Addressing a group of Indian journalists at the end of a promotional tour made by a UAE 40-member delegation headed by the minister covering four major Indian cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, Sheikha Lubna said that the bolstering of trade and investment relations between UAE and India owe a great deal to the directions of the UAE's foreign trade policies. She said that the six-day tour created opportunities to identify vast prospects for joint investment cooperation between the two sides, benefiting mutual relations between the two countries in the short and medium terms.
