Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, yesterday held talks about ways to enhance bilateral ties of friendship and cooperation and exchanged views on a variety of regional and international issues of mutual interest.

Sheikh Mohamed welcomed the Indian Prime Minister and his accompanying delegation, expressing his delight at the visit, which, he said, comes within the context of the distinguished historic, friendly bilateral ties whose foundation was laid down by the late founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan based on mutual trust, close friendship and mutual interests which, in turn, culminated into a strong partnership.

'The UAE, under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, is pursuing and promoting Sheikh Zayed's approach through diversified, excellent ties that serve all economic, developmental, trade, cultural and political sectors,' HH said, emphasising the UAE's keenness to further broaden its scope of joint cooperation with the friendly Republic of India in various fields, given India's important status and role in the international scene and for its industrial and technological progress.

HH said the UAE was looking forward to scale friendly bilateral ties to new, ambitious heights at all levels.

HH added,' Your Excellency's interest in visiting the UAE is a true expression of the bonds of friendship and fruitful bilateral cooperation as well as the common vision towards a wide range of regional and international issues. We also share with you this interest, given your country's important role in international politics and global economic growth.'

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi affirmed the UAE's commitment to promoting the values of tolerance, coexistence, fostering understanding, dialogue and openness to other cultures and seeking inter-nation rapprochement and cooperation.

India, he stressed, has a key role and displays consistent dynamism towards international issues and the UAE would like to see India continuously engage with the international community in order to solve many problems that are significant to security, stability and development of the region.

The talks also tackled avenues of joint cooperation that serve mutual strategic interests and took stock of progress in areas of bilateral cooperation as well as means to further expand it.

HH Sheikh Mohamed highly valued the contributions of the resident Indian community to the development of many sectors in the UAE.

'The Indian community has made significant contributions in the process of building the country and development that the UAE is witnessing. It is a natural extension of age old bonds between the Indian subcontinent and the Arabian Gulf.' Sheikh Mohamed welcomed efforts aimed at activating and taking joint economic and investment partnership to new sectors and strengthening strategic bonds, particularly in political domain, to realise the welfare of the two countries and their people.

HH also stressed the importance of bolstering channels of communication and coordination for enhancing joint development programmes and discussing strategic projects that advance UAE-India ties.

'The Indian Prime Minister's visit to the UAE has significant importance in the light of the leaderships' keenness to push forward bilateral cooperation to new horizons that both countries and people aspire for,' HH said.

As they exchanged views on a wide range of regional and international topics of mutual interest, the two sides emphasised their mutual desire to build more solid and robust ties.

They also recognised that security and stability were two vital requirements in the region to help the engine of development and progress run its natural course. They also emphatically called on the international community to double its efforts aimed at realising peace, security, and coexistence among nations of the region.

The two countries also strongly condemned all forms and manifestations of extremism, violence and terrorism.

The meeting was attended by H.H. Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, National Security Advisor and Deputy Chairman of Abu Dhabi Executive Council, H.H. Lt. General Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior, H.H. Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs, H.H. Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan Chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court, H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, Saqr bin Ghobash Saeed Ghobash, Minister of Labour, Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, Minister of Energy, Ahmed Juma Al Za'abi, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs, Mohammed Mubarak Al Mazrouie, Undersecretary of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court, Major General Eisa Saif Al Mazrouie, Deputy Chief of Staff of UAE Armed Forces, and a number of senior officials.

Present from the Indian side were Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Adviser, Dr S. Jaishankar, Foreign Secretary, Shri Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Shri T.P. Seetharam, Ambassador of India to the UAE, Shri Vikas Swarup, Joint Secretary (External Publicity), MEA, Shri Thanglura Darlong, Joint Secretary (Gulf), MEA, Shri Vivek Srivastava, Director, Special Protection Group, Shri Jawed Ashraf, Joint Secretary to PM, Shri Sanjeev Singla, Private Secretary to PM, and Dr. Deepak Mittal, Director, Prime Minister's Office.