New Delhi: During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s brief trip to Abu Dhabi on Friday (May 15), his first visit to West Asia after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran triggered the ongoing war and disrupted Indian energy supplies, India and the UAE inked agreements on fuel supply and storage and finalised a framework for a strategic defence partnership.In his remarks during talks with Emirati President Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Modi, while referring to Iran’s retaliatory attacks on the UAE without naming Tehran, reiterated India’s ‘strong condemnation’ of the strikes against the Gulf nation.“Brother, as I have previously told you, India strongly condemns the attacks on the UAE. The way the UAE has been made a target is not acceptable in any way,” he said, adding to praise as “very commendable” the “restraint” and “courage” the Emirates has displayed “in these difficult circumstances”.However Modi did not condemn or name the US or Israel for launching their war against Iran, which has cast a shadow of uncertainty over West Asia, resulted in the deaths of at least eight Indians and, by way of Tehran’s retaliatory closure of the Strait of Hormuz, has rocked global energy flows including to India.He said speaking to al-Nayhan that “keeping the Hormuz [strait] free, open and safe is our biggest priority”. “The observance of international law is necessary in this respect.”His remarks also came as the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi failed to produce a joint statement amid the deadlock between Iran and the UAE, both of which joined the grouping in 2024. Tehran has alleged that the Emirati delegation insisted that any declaration the bloc makes must condemn Iran’s strikes on the UAE.Among the agreements signed Friday is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) wherein the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) would, ‘potentially’, store up to 30 million barrels of crude in India’s strategic petroleum reserves – including by setting up facilities in the eastern emirate of Fujairah, which bypasses the Hormuz strait – and collaborate on LPG and LNG storage within India.In another MoU, ADNOC and IndianOil will “explore potential opportunities” in the sale and purchase of LPG, including a long-term deal between the two state-owned firms.The two sides had signed an agreement in 2018 wherein ADNOC agreed to stock close to six million barrels of oil in India’s strategic petroleum reserves.Friday’s MoUs come against the background of the Hormuz strait’s closure pinching LPG supplies to India, which normally imports 60% of its requirement of the fuel, around 90% of which in turn traversed the key waterway in peacetime. Small restaurants and migrant workers were especially hit by the supply crunch.Crude oil imports too have been disrupted, and although the government has maintained that India is not facing any supply issues, Modi earlier this week appealed to Indians to conserve fuel by working from home as well as refrain from travelling abroad and buying gold in a bid to save foreign exchange. Indian state-owned oil marketing companies also effected their first price hike in four years on Friday.New Delhi and Abu Dhabi also concluded a framework for a future strategic defence partnership, which the two sides had agreed to do during al-Nahyan’s visit to India in January. The framework would span defence industrial collaboration, innovation and advanced technologies, training and joint exercises, maritime security and cyber defence among other domains.January’s agreement had come amid the UAE’s simmering tensions with Saudi Arabia and months after Riyadh signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan, wherein any aggression against either country” is deemed to be “considered an aggression against both”.Emirati investments in India were also secured, as it was announced that the Emirates NBD Bank would invest $3 billion in the RBL Bank of India and that the International Holding Company would invest $1 billion in Sammaan Capital. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and the National Infrastructure & Investment Fund are to “explore investments [of] up to $1 billion in India’s infrastructure sector”.Other agreements signed on Friday involve a future ship repair facility in Gujarat, a framework to train and mobilise maritime workers and laying the foundation for supercomputer collaboration between the two sides.Modi’s visit, his eighth to the UAE since becoming prime minister, lasted for just around three hours, with the prime minister leaving for the Netherlands, the first country in his four-nation tour of Europe, by early afternoon.