This second edition of the UAE–India CEPA Council Newsletter for 2026 marks four years since the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement entered into force, offering both a reflection on the distance travelled and a view of the next phase. Negotiated in 88 days and signed in February 2022, the CEPA has since become the defining bilateral story of the decade: total bilateral trade has risen from USD 72.88 billion at signing to USD 101.25 billion in FY 2025-26, holding above the USD 100 billion mark for a second consecutive year and making the UAE India’s third-largest trading partner. With leaders setting a renewed target of USD 200 billion by 2032, the issue frames the coming years as a shift from framework-building to scaling utilisation, deepening integration, and unlocking the partnership’s full long-term potential.
The edition documents a quarter of exceptional diplomatic and economic momentum, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Abu Dhabi in May, the signing of a framework for a Strategic Defence Partnership, agreements spanning energy and advanced technology, and USD 5 billion in fresh UAE investment into India — followed by the two leaders’ third meeting of the year on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Evian. Central to the issue is the Council’s newly launched Open Majlis series, a programme of open-door dialogues bringing practitioners, policymakers, and institution-builders into the same room. The newsletter reports on its first three editions, from the inaugural session in New Delhi to a behind-the-scenes account of the people-first strategy behind the UAE–India Start-Up Series, culminating in the CEPA Fourth Anniversary Edition convened jointly with the UAE-India Business Council, featuring the Ambassador of the UAE to India, a keynote by the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, the launch of the Four Years of the UAE-India CEPA booklet, and MoUs advancing the Start-Up Series’ second edition.
The issue also turns to the changing nature of capital moving through the corridor, as the UAE consolidates its position as a leading global centre for family offices and private wealth — with DIFC now hosting 120 family offices managing over USD 1.2 trillion in assets — and a growing community of these investors looks to India for long-term opportunity, explored through an evening convening Indian investors and family offices alongside Abu Dhabi’s Al Liwan Group. Alongside updates on defence, energy, shipbuilding, advanced computing, and the announcement of UAE-India Start-Up Series 2.0 with Hub71 as Anchor Partner, the Business in Focus section follows Endimension, an AI-first radiology platform and inaugural Series winner now entering Hub71’s Access Programme — a tangible demonstration of how the CEPA’s institutional architecture translates into real outcomes on the ground.
