The UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) Council (UICC) and the UAE-India Business Council, India Chapter (UIBC) jointly convened the Open Majlis: UAE-India CEPA Fourth Anniversary Edition in New Delhi, bringing together senior policymakers, diplomats, industry leaders, and institution-builders to review the agreement’s first four years and chart the architecture for its next chapter. The highlight of the event was that EBC Publishing Pvt. Ltd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with UAE-India CEPA Council.
About the UAE-India CEPA Council:
The UAE-India CEPA Council (UICC) is a dedicated bilateral platform established to advance trade, investment, and innovation under the UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. It facilitates strategic collaborations between businesses, governments, and institutions across both countries to unlock shared economic opportunities, and serves as a convening, research, and advocacy body supporting exporters, investors, and entrepreneurs in navigating the bilateral relationship. The Open Majlis is the Council’s flagship convening format.
CEPA has driven bilateral trade to USD 101.25 billion in FY 2025-26, crossing the USD 100 billion mark for the second consecutive year, with non-oil trade now accounting for nearly two-thirds of the total. The leaders of both nations have recently set a new target of USD 200 billion in bilateral trade by 2032.
About the UAE-India Business Council:
The UAE-India Business Council (UIBC) is a premier bilateral business organisation dedicated to strengthening commercial and economic ties between the UAE and India. UIBC serves as a bridge between the private sectors of both countries, facilitating business matchmaking, advocacy, and dialogue across sectors. The Council works closely with government bodies, trade associations, and chambers of commerce on both sides to create an enabling environment for trade, investment, and partnership, and co-curated the Open Majlis as part of its commitment to shaping the next phase of the bilateral economic relationship.
The Event:
Shri Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry; Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, delivered the keynote address as Guest of Honour and jointly launched the UICC’s research publication titled “The UAE-India CEPA at Four” alongside H.E. Abdulnasser Alshaali, PhD, Ambassador of the UAE to India.
“What we are celebrating today is not just a trade agreement and not just four years of strong numbers. The UAE and India have moved from being strong trading partners to being genuine strategic partners, working together across goods, services, investment, education, and people. The CEPA was the foundation on which that broader partnership was built,” — Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry
H.E. Abdulnasser Alshaali, in his welcome remarks, reflected on the journey since the agreement entered into force. “The CEPA has become a defining pillar of the UAE-India partnership, helping bilateral trade reach beyond USD 100 billion and setting the foundation for a shared ambition of USD 200 billion by 2032 under the leadership of His Highness President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. Beyond trade, the CEPA is fostering innovation, start-ups, and the digital economy, translating this vision into tangible outcomes through major initiatives supporting Indian entrepreneurs across AI, fintech, sustainability, health, and emerging sectors”.
Speaking on the partnership, Maj. Gen. (Retd.) Sharafuddin Sharaf, Chairman — UAE-India Business Council and Vice-Chairman – Sharaf Group, said, “The UAE-India CEPA has emerged as a defining pillar of the bilateral relationship, demonstrating how strategic vision, institutional trust, and business collaboration can together shape a globally competitive economic corridor. As we enter the next phase, the ambition must move beyond trade expansion to building a future-ready enabling architecture across trade facilitation, logistics, finance, compliance, and innovation, thereby, creating a seamless ecosystem that empowers businesses of every scale. UIBC is proud to partner with the UAE-India CEPA Council for the Open Majlis platform and remains committed to advancing a long-term vision of deeper, more resilient, and future-oriented economic and institutional collaboration between India and the UAE.”
Mr. Ahmed Aljneibi, Director of the UAE-India CEPA Council, presented a review of the agreement’s progress and outlined the UICC’s agenda for the period ahead. He stated, “Over the past four years, the UAE—India CEPA has evolved beyond a trade agreement into a broader framework for economic cooperation across trade, investment, innovation, technology, and services. The first four years of the CEPA focused on building the framework and institutional architecture; the next phase will focus on scaling utilisation, deepening integration, and unlocking the full long-term potential of the UAE—India partnership.”
The event featured two panel discussions. The first, titled “The Architecture of Trade: Corridors, Capital, and Compliance”, examined the transactional infrastructure underpinning bilateral trade, covering the Virtual Trade Corridor, Bharat Mart and Jebel Ali as a combined re-export gateway, the INR-AED local currency settlement framework, and the Joint Committee’s standards alignment agenda. The panel included Mr. Afaq Hussain (Bureau of Research on Industry and Economic Fundamentals), Mr. Sharad Agarwal (Emirates NBD), Mr. Shubhransh Srivastav (DP World), Mr. Sachin Bhanushali (RITES Ltd), and Mr. Atul Puri (SW India).
The second panel, titled “The Architecture of the Next Chapter: Innovation, Institutions, and the Indo-Emirati Idea”, discussed how aerospace, fintech, and deep technology are emerging as the next frontiers of bilateral collaboration, and what institutions and investments are required to move the relationship from high-performing to truly transformative. Panellists included Mr. Karan Mittal (Caret Capital), Mr. Anil K. Antony (BJP), Ms. Shweta Rajpal Kohli (Startup Policy Forum), Mr. Tarun Chaturvedi (FITT, IIT Delhi), Mr. Sumit Malhotra (Iron Pillar) and Ms. Upasana Sharma (TiE Delhi-NCR).
Signing of MoUs:
A key milestone of the event was the signing of Memoranda of Understanding between the UAE-India CEPA Council and the Startup Policy Forum, and between the UAE-India CEPA Council and EBC Publishing Private Limited, to advance the second edition of the UAE-India Start-Up Series. The Series, whose first edition attracted over 10,000 applications, is designed to fast-track cross-border market access, growth, and collaboration for Indian start-ups entering the UAE ecosystem.
The MoU between EBC and UAE India CEPA Council aims to increase awareness around Law and Policy among various stakeholders in India and the UAE whilst promoting international best practices in these domains. This alliance envisions fostering a robust ecosystem for legal and policy research through knowledge sharing initiatives, legal roundtables and thought leadership whitepapers. The parties intend to work towards establishing a Bilateral Legal Innovation Corridor designed to harmonize digital legal infrastructure and catalyse judicial cooperation between the Republic of India and the United Arab Emirates.
