India may assist UAE in air defence system
By
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, ET Bureau | Updated: Jan 20, 2017, 12.20 PM IST
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India sees the UAE as one of its main destinations for arms exports in the future, they said.
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NEW DELHI: India may assist the United Arab Emirates in developing its air
defence system and repairing defence equipment to enhance its life cycle, besides providing offshore patrol vehicles as the Gulf country hopes to expand ties beyond its traditional partner
Pakistan.
Robust defence ties is a key pillar of Comprehensive Strategic Partnership that India and the
UAE plan to conclude during Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit to Delhi as the chief guest for the Republic Day, officials said. India sees the UAE as one of its main destinations for arms exports in the future, they said.
"Air defence is another area where India can assist the UAE given the new found expertise that India is building on," Ananta Centre, a leading Indian public policy forum said in a comprehensive report on India-UAE ties ahead of the Crown Prince’s visit.
The report further said, "For instance, L&T has procured an order for 100 self-propelled track air defence guns in partnership with a Korean company. The product of the Korean company was not environmentally suitable but the product was acclimatised and made suitable to be used in the UAE. Therefore, acclimatised products being developed in India are products that can meet the UAE’s requirements."
The report said that private shipyards in India can provide offshore patrol vessels and there are designs existing for frigates and corvettes to meet requirements of the Gulf nation. "The UAE has been buying these from Europe and the US. India could well provide the UAE these interceptor boats developed by companies like L&T and others."
The trend in the UAE has been to discard defence equipment when the product develops a problem because the companies don’t have the wherewithal to repair equipment. "But the Indian companies can provide the facility for the upgradation of these systems, the way the Indian Army manages to use the product much beyond its actual life," the report said.
However, there can be no defence collaboration without strong economic and trade relations, Ananta Centre said. It said in the report that "there needs to be investment with impetus being given to the private industry to develop products for the Indian markets". Besides, enough opportunities need to be created to develop products and expertise to take them to the UAE market, it said.
The report said that India needs to address certain bottlenecks to make the country an attractive investment destination for resource-rich UAE, which has announced investments of $75 billion in India.
"India is looking for long-term investment options but in order to attract huge investments, it has to guarantee security for their investments and ensure returns. The challenge is that the UAE only comes with capital and not expertise and hence the Indian government needs to ensure that they get returns," the report said.
Another major point of contention, according to the report, is the large scale on which the UAE investors like to operate. "The commercial investments in India do not have anything to offer to the UAE in return or to absorb for instance, 500 or more million dollars of equity investment from the UAE," it said.
India needs to establish a strategic partnership with the UAE where the Gulf nation can help store fuel for India’s energy needs on its territory, the report said. "One positive step in this direction is that India is building three storage sites and the UAE has agreed to finance a portion of the Mangalore storage site to be taken up by The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and given to India for free," it said.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com...n-air-defence-system/articleshow/56674061.cms
