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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was on a one-day visit to the United Arab Emirates, met the country’s President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi and held comprehensive talks with him on Saturday (July 15). In his remarks after the meeting, Modi said he always got the love of a brother from Sheikh Mohamed.
“The manner in which ties between our countries have expanded, you have made a big contribution to that. Every person in India views you as a true friend,” the Indian Prime Minister told the UAE President, according to a PTI news agency report.
Often referred to by his initials, MBZ, Sheikh Mohamed became the West Asian nation’s President in May 2022, after the death of his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, who ruled the UAE for almost two decades. Regarded as the most influential ruler of the Arab world, Sheikh Mohamed is known for his inquisitive mind, understated demeanour and ambitions of making the UAE a pivotal geopolitical player in the region.
Rise to power
Educated in the UAE and the military officers’ college at Sandhurst in the United Kingdom, MBZ initially held a host of positions in the UAE military and then became a pilot in the UAE Air Force. His political career, however, began when he was appointed as the Deputy Crown Prince of the country, in 2003, by his father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founder of the UAE and its first President.
But within a year, MBZ was promoted to the designation of the Crown Prince as his father died, and his half-brother got the top job. It didn’t take long for Sheikh Mohamed to become the most powerful leader of the UAE though. After Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014, which further deteriorated his poor health, MBZ emerged as the de facto ruler of the country.
Transforming the UAE’s military
Sheikh Mohamed is believed to have transformed his country’s “military into a high-tech force, which coupled with its oil wealth and business hub status, extended Emirati influence internationally,” according to a report by Al Jazeera.
He hired former American officers and former American spies to help not only run the UAE’s military but also establish intelligence services. A report by The New York Times noted that MBZ built a domestic Emirati defence industry, on the advice of retired American generals, which exports Emirati-made armoured vehicles to clients in Libya and Egypt.
A Prudent leader
More significantly, Sheikh Mohamed built close ties with the US by offering up the services of his country and its armed forces to support Western countries’ military endeavours in the region — the UAE deployed its special forces in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Somalia and Libya and also fought alongside the American forces against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. MBZ also spent large amounts of money to buy American weapons and on lobbyists to help him promote his vision in the United States.
However, this didn’t make Sheikh Mohamed subservient to Washington’s demands. He hasn’t hesitated in making independent decisions whenever it comes to furthering his or his country’s interests. A case in point: the UAE abstained from a UN Security Council vote condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite the US pressure. As per a 2022 report by the New York Times, the West Asian country has now become a “refuge for fleeing Russian oligarchs and their money.”
Much like in the case of the US, MBZ has fostered a balanced relationship with Saudi Arabia also. He helped Riyadh’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman rise to power, participated with the Saudis to spearhead a military intervention in Yemen, and has remained one of the biggest rivals of Iran. But once MBZ realised that the war in Yemen had settled into a grinding stalemate, he largely withdrew his troops from the country, unlike Riyadh.
Strong relations with India
Under the leadership of Sheikh Mohamed, the UAE has further strengthened its ties with India. While, in 2015, Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the UAE in 34 years, the next year, India hosted MBZ as the Chief Guest of the Republic Day celebrations by rolling out a red carpet for a leader who was neither a Head of State nor Head of Government at the time.
Notably, trade between the two countries has risen from $50 billion in 2015-16 to $85 billion in 2022-2023, making the UAE, India’s third-largest trading partner for the year and India’s second-largest export destination.
On Saturday, after Modi landed in the West Asian country, he held wide-ranging discussions with Sheikh Mohamed, during which the two leaders lauded the economic partnership and hoped to achieve the target of $100 billion in trade before the G-20 meeting in Delhi in September this year.
