New Delhi: In what is likely the shortest official visit by a head of state to India, United Arab Emirates (UAE) President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan spent just over three hours in New Delhi on Monday (January 19), during which the two nations signed a letter of intent to establish a framework for strategic defence partnership.The brief visit saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally receive the UAE President at the airport, a gesture foreign secretary Vikram Misri described as “characteristic of the extremely warm and close relationship that the two leaders share”. The two leaders then travelled together by car to the prime minister’s residence for discussions.Speaking later to reporters, Misri said that though the “visit of just about three hours, it has been an extremely substantive visit”.The trip marked Sheikh Mohamed’s fourth visit to India, reciprocating Modi’s seven visits to the Emirate. Modi last travelled to the UAE in February 2024, when the two countries signed a bilateral investment treaty.In total, five documents were exchanged and seven announcements made during this visit, covering defence, space, energy, food security and investment.Billed as the top outcome, the strategic defence partnership letter of intent, based on “mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity,” aims to expand cooperation in counter-terrorism, maritime security, cyber security, defence industrial collaboration, advanced technologies and special forces training, with the two sides set to negotiate a Framework Agreement.The agreement comes amid shifting regional dynamics in the Gulf. Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE have emerged in recent months over divergent approaches to conflicts in Yemen and Sudan.Tensions spiked in December 2025 after the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council launched operations near the Saudi border in Yemen. Riyadh responded by striking what it said was an STC weapons shipment arriving from the UAE and demanded that Emirati forces leave Yemen within 24 hours. It also accused Abu Dhabi of encouraging separatist actions that threatened Saudi security. The UAE denied the allegation and announced it would withdraw its remaining troops.This month, Saudi aircraft hit STC positions after its leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, skipped talks in Riyadh. Yemen’s presidential council expelled Zubaidi and charged him with treason. The Saudi coalition then accused the UAE of helping smuggle Zubaidi out of Yemen via Somalia to Abu Dhabi.The rupture over Yemen reflects a broader Saudi-UAE rivalry stretching from the Red Sea to Sudan, where Abu Dhabi has backed the RSF while Riyadh has leaned toward the army-led government and hosted peace talks.With the UAE having normalised ties with Israel and cultivating separatist partners around the peninsula, Saudi leaders fear being strategically boxed in, according to analysts.Last September, Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement with Pakistan, a move that raised questions in New Delhi given the timing, just months after India’s Operation Sindoor. The agreement includes a clause stating that “any aggression against either country shall be considered an aggression against both.” Most analysts had, however, assessed that Riyadh would be unlikely to provide military support to Islamabad in any India-Pakistan conflict, given Saudi Arabia’s expanding economic ties with India.When asked whether India’s involvement in defence cooperation with a country from the region could entangle it in the Gulf’s conflicts, Misri emphasised that defence cooperation does not lead to involvement in regional disputes.“Our involvement on the defence and security front with a country from the region does not then necessarily lead to the conclusion that we will get involved in particular ways in the conflicts of the region,” Misri said. “There is already a great deal of content in defence cooperation and engagement on the defence front between India and the UAE and in fact between India and a few other countries in the region as well.”He noted that India and the UAE have been systematically building defence ties since April 2024, when the UAE defence minister visited India in what he called a “watershed moment” that elevated institutional defence dialogue to the secretary level. Three UAE service chiefs visited India last year alone, and bilateral naval and army exercises have become routine.“I would really characterise it as a natural evolution from the already considerable defence cooperation between the two countries and not necessarily a response to any specific event that may have taken place in the region,” Misri said.On regional issues, both sides welcomed the Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal, backed a two-state solution, and called for unhindered humanitarian assistance. They stressed the need for “an independent, viable and contiguous State of Palestine, within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side-by-side in peace with Israel.”They also expressed support for an inclusive, Syrian-led political process and called for respect for Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. Both reiterated their commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with Iran and supported the idea of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East.The joint statement emphasised on counter-terrorism cooperation, with both leaders “unequivocally condemning terrorism and violent extremism in all forms and manifestations” and calling for perpetrators, organisers, financiers and sponsors to be held accountable.India and the UAE urged early finalisation of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the United Nations and called on all countries to implement FATF standards to combat terror financing and money laundering. They also underlined the need to deny safe havens to terrorists and dismantle terror infrastructure.The UAE accounts for about fifty five percent of India’s total trade with the Gulf Cooperation Council, with bilateral trade crossing USD 100 billion after the 2022 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. The two leaders set a target of USD 200 billion by 2032 and agreed to expand the India-UAE local currency settlement system to facilitate trade in national currencies.A long-term deal was signed for UAE to supply 0.5 million metric tonnes of LNG annually over 10 years starting 2028, making it India’s second-largest LNG supplier. Letters of intent were also exchanged on space infrastructure development – including launch complexes, satellite fabrication facilities, joint missions, and space academies – and UAE participation in developing the Dholera Special Investment Region in Gujarat, which will include an international airport, MRO facility, port, and urban infrastructure.The two countries will collaborate on establishing a supercomputing cluster in India with UAE partnership, and the UAE will invest in expanding data centre capacity in India. The UAE confirmed high-level participation in India’s AI Summit scheduled for February 2026.Both sides agreed to explore the establishment of a “digital embassy”, a concept linked to the secure storage of data of national importance. “There are not too many successful examples of this concept having been executed in too many places in the world, but there are a few. It is a new concept for us as well,” Misri said, adding that regulatory frameworks would need to be developed.On the cultural front, India and the UAE agreed to set up a “House of India” in Abu Dhabi, envisaged as a cultural space with a museum reflecting India’s heritage. The UAE also agreed to provide historical artefacts for India’s National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal.