Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United Arab Emirates came at a moment when the Middle East is once again testing the assumptions of every major power. War in Gaza, tensions with Iran, the vulnerability of maritime routes, the fragility of energy markets and the growing importance of new economic corridors have all returned the region to the centre of global strategy.

For India, this is no longer a distant theatre. The Gulf is part of its extended neighbourhood, its energy lifeline, its diaspora space and increasingly its corridor to Europe. Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi should be read in that light. It was not only a bilateral engagement with a close partner. It was part of India’s gradual effort to define a more confident role in West Asia, one that rests on old relationships but is increasingly shaped by new realities.

The UAE has become central to this approach. Few countries in the region combine political stability, capital, logistical ambition and strategic clarity in the way Abu Dhabi does. For New Delhi, the relationship offers much more than energy cooperation. It offers a platform for investment, infrastructure, technology, defence, food security and maritime connectivity. It also offers something less visible but perhaps more valuable, a partner capable of translating regional ambition into executable projects.

Energy remains the foundation of the relationship, as it must. India’s dependence on imported crude makes the stability of the Gulf a domestic concern. Any disruption in the Strait of Hormuz is not an abstraction for New Delhi. It is felt in inflation, fiscal planning, industrial production and household budgets. Cooperation with the UAE on strategic petroleum reserves and LPG therefore belongs not only to the language of commerce, but to the vocabulary of national security.

Yet the relationship has moved well beyond hydrocarbons. Defence cooperation, maritime security, logistics and technology now occupy an increasingly important place in India-UAE ties. This reflects a wider shift in Indian thinking. The Gulf is no longer viewed only as........

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