The UAE has signalled intent to invest another $25 billion in India, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said, with the two countries also identifying six areas of shipping cooperation and discussing expanded strategic petroleum reserves and port capacity.
The Headline Commitment
Speaking after the 14th meeting of the India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said the UAE has given intent to invest another $25 billion in India in the near future, with an ultimate objective of taking total UAE investment in India to $100 billion. The UAE has already invested $25 billion in India to date and is the country's seventh-largest source of foreign direct investment, according to Goyal. Some of the fresh capital has already begun arriving, he said, citing roughly $3 billion into RBL Bank and approximately $1 billion into Sammaan Capital.
Goyal co-chaired the meeting with Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.
Where The Money Is Headed
The UAE is looking at investments across ports, shipbuilding, space, logistics, Indian startups, and the Indian stock market, Goyal said. On shipping specifically, the two countries identified six cooperation areas: ship ownership, development of modern ports, ship manufacturing, ship repair and maintenance, ship breaking, and container manufacturing, and will set up a dedicated working group to pursue them.
On ports, Goyal said India's port capacity has doubled over the last decade and will need to double again over the next decade as the economy grows, naming Vadhavan in Maharashtra, new ports on Odisha and Andhra Pradesh's eastern coast, and the western corridor between Karnataka and Kerala as areas where UAE investment is expected.
The Energy Security Angle
Goyal said India and the UAE are exploring deeper cooperation on energy security, including expanding India's strategic petroleum reserves, LPG and LNG supplies, and subsea pipelines. He linked this directly to recent geopolitical instability: "Given the geopolitical situation currently and the uncertainties of the world that we are now continuously seeing, we had Covid, then we had the Ukraine war which still continues, now we have the West Asia crisis. UAE being a trusted partner, we are working with them to look at expanding strategic petroleum reserves in India," he said, adding that studies are underway ahead of a "significant rampup" of UAE investment in this area.
Currency And Trade Developments
Goyal said local-currency settlement between India and the UAE, trading directly in rupees and dirhams rather than routing through the US dollar, has grown into "double digits" as a share of bilateral trade, with traders and travellers increasingly understanding the benefits.
On the broader trade relationship, bilateral trade between India and the UAE has reached $100 billion, with both countries targeting a doubling to $200 billion by 2032, a goal endorsed by Prime Minister Modi and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan earlier this year. The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, in force since May 2022, is now four years old. Goyal added that geopolitical tensions have weighed on bilateral trade, but volumes are nearly back to pre-war levels and should exceed them within a few months.
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Why It Matters
A $25 billion incremental commitment, on top of $25 billion already invested, would meaningfully deepen the UAE's already-significant role as India's seventh-largest FDI source, particularly given the breadth of sectors involved, ports, shipbuilding, energy security infrastructure, and capital markets, rather than a single concentrated bet. The explicit linkage to strategic petroleum reserve expansion and the West Asia conflict suggests India is treating this partnership partly as a hedge against regional energy-supply disruption, not purely as a commercial investment relationship.
