President Pratibha Patil meets UAE president

Abu Dhabi, Nov 22: Indian President Pratibha Patil, on a visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to enhance economic and energy ties with the Gulf region, was today welcomed to the country by her counterpart, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Patil is on a nine-day two-nation tour to the UAE and Syria. She will inaugurate in Abu Dhabi an Indian Workers Resource Centre, designed to provide a 24-hour helpline and counselling service to workers from the country who are in distress.Apart from Abu Dhabi, she would travel to Dubai and Sharjah.

The UAE president today received Patil at the Mushrif Palace, where she inspected a guard of honour. Patil was given a 21-gun salute and India's national anthem was also played. Patil arrived Sunday evening in Abu Dhabi, where she was received by UAE Minister for Foreign Trade Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, UAE's ambassador to India Mohammed Sultan Abdullah Al-Owais and Indian ambassador to the UAE M.K. Lokesh.

The Indian president Sunday told WAM that India and the UAE have witnessed rapid modernisation of their societies and economies. "We share common destiny in the contemporary world and we have much to gain by intensifying our cooperation with each other. We have a huge stake in each other's success, and to that extent ours is a relationship that is of strategic importance," she said. "We have achieved the status of being each other's largest trading partner. There is need for greater integration of our economies, higher flow of trade and investment. Cooperation in energy and environment are assuming importance in our relations as also cooperation in counter-terrorism, tackling the global economic crisis, education. UAE is important for our energy security," she said. Patil heads to Syria on Nov 26. This will be the first presidential visit to that country from India. She will hold delegation-level talks with President Bashar Al Assad in Damscus. (IANS)