India an "ally and cherished neighbour": UAE Foreign Minister

New Delhi, May 18 (ANI): Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday expressed UAE's interest to invest in India, calling it an "ally and cherished neighbour".

Addressing a joint press conference with the External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna here on Friday, Al Nahyan said the UAE would like to have a "strong presence" in the Indian market.

"India is not only a very important ally and a neighbour to the UAE, but it's a booming economy worldwide. There is potential of 1 trillion dollar of investment in India in the next five years. India is looking for half of that amount to come from abroad, we would very much like to see a strong UAE presence in that," he said.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna reiterated UAE's importance to fulfill India's oil requirements, terming it "a dependent supplier of oil", besides announcing the creation of a joint joint 'high-level task force for investment' to be headed by Al Nahyan and Union Minister for Commerce, Industries and Textiles, Anand Sharma.

" In United Arab Emirates (UAE) we have a dependent supplier of oil. In 2010, we imported 12 million tonnes and in 2011, we increased it to 14 million tonnes. So this would be the indication at the rate at which our import from UAE is going up," Krishna said.

The issue of piracy also came up during the talks, with Al Nahyan urging the nations to resolve political unrest in Somalia -considered the headquarters for global pirates - to resolve the piracy menace.

He said that India and UAE have been working together to tackle the 'scourge of piracy', with information sharing being the biggest tool in that direction.

"Resolving piracy will not come unless we can resolve Somalia. It's very important that at a time where we face piracy in the Gulf of Aden and beyond, I am very much pleased that the UAE and India are working very closely (to resolve the issue). The key is to resolve the source of this problem, which is the lack of governance, government, unity and the void that has been created in Somalia," Al Nahyan said.

The 3rd India-Arab Economic Conclave to be hosted in Abu Dhabi on May 21 and 22 and the proposed road show on investment in Abu Dhabi and Dubai in June were also discussed in the meet. (ANI)