The UAE plans to invest another $25bn in India soon, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said after a bilateral investment task force meeting held in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
The statement followed the 14th India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments meeting, which was co-chaired by Goyal and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, managing director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
According to Indian government-owned broadcaster DD India, the discussions focused on using the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement to expand investment and reinforce supply chains.
Goyal said the UAE has already invested about $25bn in India, making it the seventh-largest source of foreign direct investment.
He said the two countries are targeting eventual UAE investment of $100bn and plan to double bilateral trade to $200bn by 2032.
Bilateral trade reached $101.25bn in FY 2025-26 (April 2025 to March 2026), while non-oil trade stood at $76.2bn in 2025.
In energy, India is seeking liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas supplies from the UAE and is examining options to expand its strategic petroleum reserves.
Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company have signed an agreement that allows the UAE to store up to 30 million barrels of crude at Indian facilities, potentially at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and Chandikhol, Odisha.
The possibility of storing part of India’s reserves in Fujairah, outside the Strait of Hormuz, is also being considered.
Goyal said India needs to double its port capacity within ten years.
Vadhavan – India’s upcoming 13th major deep-water port located in the Palghar district of Maharashtra – and other coastal projects were identified as areas for cooperation.
The two sides also identified six maritime areas for collaboration, including shipbuilding, repair and shipbreaking, and will set up a working group led by India’s Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways.
The talks also addressed local-currency settlement, payment system integration and central bank digital currencies, as well as aviation connections and a logistics hub at Dholera, Gujarat.
An Invest India office in the UAE is expected to open before the end of 2026.
Deals referenced during the meeting included Emirates NBD’s roughly $3bn acquisition of a majority stake in RBL Bank, International Holding Company’s $1bn investment in Sammaan Capital, and a joint $11.5bn plan to develop an integrated aluminium complex in Odisha.
Mashreq Bank, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company have also opened branches in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) City.
