With an aim to increase two-way commerce to $200 billion by 2032, India and the UAE have agreed to take steps for the timely implementation of initiatives relating to settlement of trade in local currencies, integration of payment and messaging systems, and central-bank digital currencies. The commerce and industry ministry said these initiatives have the potential to make bilateral trade and investment more efficient, accessible and resilient. This was discussed during the 14th meeting of the India-UAE High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (HLJTFI). Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan co-chaired the meeting.
Goyal said that the settlement of trade in local currency it is picking up and is now in double digits as exporters are gradually coming to fully understand its benefits. In the system, Indian exporters get paid in rupees and imports from UAE are paid in Dirham (AED). He noted “The benefit of this is that, periodically - say, every three or six months - we can convert the accumulated holdings of each other's currencies into USD...it can be converted into the international dollar currency on a regular basis”.
He added that the two sides have identified six areas to increase cooperation, which include ship ownership, development of modern ports, manufacturing of ships, repair and maintenance of ships, ship breaking, and container manufacturing. He said “In these six areas, we'll set up a working group between the two countries... These six put together provide tremendous opportunity for both countries to learn from each other's experiences”.
The bilateral trade has reached $101.25 billion in 2025-26. The non-oil trade touched $76.2 billion last year. The two nations have implemented a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in May 2022. In August 2024, both partners implemented a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) with the aim of protecting and promoting investments. Goyal said “The CEPA is now four years old. We have doubled our bilateral trade to $100 billion and have set an ambitious target to double it to $200 billion by 2032”.
