Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited United Arab Emirates

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi visited United Arab Emirates (UAE) between 16 August and 17 August 2015. He is the first Prime Minister of India to visit UAE after 34 years. The last Indian Prime Minister to visit the UAE was Indira Gandhi in 1981.

He visited the country on invitation of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

During the visit, the Prime Minister held talks with Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

The two nations had fruitful discussion on lateral issues and resolved to maintain regular summits, high level ministerial dialogue and meetings of bilateral mechanisms to realize their vision of a strong comprehensive strategic partnership.

Important events held during Modi’s visit to the nation includes
• His Highness the Crown Prince decided to allot land for construction of a temple in Abu Dhabi.
• He also visited the historic Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, which is the third largest mosque in the world and can accommodate around 40000 people at a time. It is named after the founder and first President of the UAE, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. The other two mosques’s which are larger than the Zayed Grand Mosque ate the ones in Mecca and Madina in Saudi Arabia.
• He visited Masdar City, a zero carbon city, where he met with investors.
• He addressed Indian Diaspora of the country at the Dubai Cricket Stadium. Indian Diaspora forms 30 per cent of the UAE’s population.
• He also interacted with Indian workers at the ICAD Residential Labour Camping, Abu Dhabi, which houses thousands of migrant labourers from the Indian subcontinent.

Besides this, the Prime Minister announced that the Indian mission in UAE has set up an e-migrant portal to help Indian migrant workers and an online platform 'MADAD' to assist them.

He also announced a new scheme as part of various measures for the welfare of Indian diaspora living in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The welfare fund will be set up for their benefit, to help them legally so that they can deal with problems.

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