India and the United Arab Emirates on Monday decided to set up a multi-billion dollar fund to tap into investment opportunities in the country’s infrastructure sector.
The fund plans to raise up to $75 billion to support investment in India’s rapid expansion of next generation infrastructure, particularly in railways, ports, roads, airports, industrial corridors and parks, an official statement said. No details were available about the timeframe for raising the money or the investment plans. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had urged UAE’s top businessmen to invest in India and had offered $1 trillion investment opportunity. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, has been keen to invest in India’s infrastructure sector and build a strategic partnership with New Delhi. ADIA is already an investor in India and sees India as an attractive investment destination. India has huge needs for investment in railways, roads, ports, industrial corridors and smart cities.
In international relations there are no permanent friends and foes, every country is looking forward to save its interest. At first Iran has strong economic ties with India, now UAE has stepped ahead to invest massive $75 billion in India. Being a sovereign country all the countries secure the right to boost up relations with any country of the world considering interest of the state. At this point our policy makers must also need to understand this basic point in international relations. Pakistan has been blessed with very vital geographical locations, but due to lack of vision of policy makers and pressure from big powers we could not take advantage from our terrain and have failed to make independent policies. This is the time to change the mindset and we should make policies to secure our national interest because our failure would be advantage for others.
National interest has pushed back ethnic and religious similarities in international relations, our policy makers need to understand this basic point.