Recently, there was a drone terror attack at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in the UAE. Three people- two Indian nationals and a Pakistani national were killed in the attack.
Armed drones are becoming popular across the world. And this single sector is evolving the triangular relationship between India, the UAE and Pakistan. India and the UAE are now teaming up, whereas Pakistan is getting marginalised.
Armed drones- the starkly different priorities of India and Pak
Armed drones have been making news ever since the 2020 Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict that showed the deadly capabilities of the unmanned platforms for the first time.
Also read: UAE demolishes Pakistan’s Kashmir dream to build a grand shopping mall on it
India is thus making world-class equipment for armed drones. Meanwhile, Pakistan is also doing its bit. It is doing what it does best- promote cross-border terrorism.
As per news reports, Indian intelligence agencies have found that Pakistan is purchasing Chinese drones and wants to use them for smuggling arms and drugs into India.
Also, Pakistan’s external spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wants to equip terror groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). Intelligence agencies suspect that Pakistan could be planning to carry out drone attacks in India on the lines of the one carried out in the UAE.
India and the UAE talk of cooperation against terrorism
The UAE has realised that India and Pakistan have starkly different priorities. And no points for guessing which country Abu Dhabi has chosen to cooperate with? India.
India and the UAE are looking to cooperate on the issue of terrorism. Foreign Minister of the UAE Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan called up his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar on Tuesday to express condolences over the loss of Indian lives in the drone terror attack.
A Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) statement read, “On his part, Jaishankar condemned the terror attack in the strongest terms. He emphasized that in this day and age, such an attack on innocent civilians was completely unacceptable and against all civilized norms. The External Affairs Minister appreciated the immediate assistance provided by UAE authorities to the Embassy in responding to this tragic situation.”
The MEA statement also conveyed, “EAM conveyed India’s strong solidarity with UAE in the face of such an attack. Given its principled position against terrorism, India will stand with UAE in international forums on this issue.”
The UAE starts cooperating with India in Kashmir
In fact, the UAE too finds it appropriate to cooperate with India. There was a time when Pakistan used to get support in its nefarious Kashmir agenda from the Arab world.
In the past few months, the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and the UAE have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for building strong business relations. The UAE is helping India develop Jammu & Kashmir with industrial parks, super speciality hospitals and other infrastructure projects in the Union Territory.
UAE is helping India keep the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir away from the scourge of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism.
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This is why the United Arab Emirates is teaming up with India and marginalising Pakistan.