Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy and Head of the UAE delegation to the Partnership Summit 2017, which started on Friday in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, met Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry.

On the sidelines of the summit, the two ministers discussed ways to strengthen economic partnership between the two countries, besides the mechanism and steps to implement the agreements signed between the UAE and India.

The UAE minister stressed the importance of strengthening the UAE-India partnership in economic and investment space. The move is an integral part of the strategic partnership that the leaders of the two countries agreed upon recently.

Al Mansouri also underlined the need to keep pace with the rapid economic growth in the two countries and push the trade to wider horizons to exceed the figure of US$50 billion recorded in 2016.

The two sides also discussed existing opportunities for investors from both countries and ways to provide them with economic facilities. They also explored most important economic and feasibility studies on promising sectors in the UAE and India so as to build an investment base capable of strengthening the partnership between the two countries.

Sitharaman said that the recent India visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and his participation as the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations "are greatly appreciated by the leadership and the people of India."

She also said her ministry is ready to co-operate with all parties concerned in the UAE to set up operations and start implementing the agreements signed between the two countries.

The Indian minister expressed her confidence in the economic partnership between the UAE and India, which would pay dividends to the two friendly countries in the short and strategic terms.

A number of officials and executives from both sides also attended the meeting.