Hyderabad: Highlighting the significance of the growing India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan expressed confidence that the new Consulate will enhance and deepen the trade and investment relationship between India and the UAE.

United Arab Emirates inaugurated the new Consulate in Hyderabad on Wednesday where Minister of State for Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan was in attendance.

Taking to Twitter, Muraleedharan said, "Pleasure to attend the inauguration of the new UAE Consulate in Hyderabad today. Warmly congratulated UAE MOS HE Mr Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh on this happy occasion."

"With an ever-growing India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, confident that the Consulate will further deepen India-UAE trade and investment relationship. It will also strengthen our people-to-people ties," he added in another tweet.

India and UAE share a great relationship. Earlier, the Minister of State for Foreign Trade of UAE, Thani Al Zeyoudi visited India and said that the trade ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi have proliferated following the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

"Trade ties with India have grown very rapidly following CEPA. There are several areas where we are looking to provide a further fillip to our robust trading ties," said Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade at a joint press conference in Delhi today.

Highlighting the central goals of India-UAE CEPA at the press conference today, the UAE minister said that one of them was to increase the flow of goods and services between the two countries.

"One of the central goals of the UAE-India CEPA was to increase the flow of goods and services between the UAE and India - and, by doing so, stimulate key export sectors, drive industrial output and kick-start an exciting new era of progress," the UAE Minister said.

The India-UAE CEPA is a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. It covers trade in goods, services, investment, and other areas of economic cooperation.

Speaking further, Al Zeyoudi added that it's a chance to reflect on the two nations' remarkable journey together.

"Our initial figures suggest that, in the first 12 months of the CEPA, bilateral non-oil trade reached 50.5 billion dollars. That is a 5.8 per cent increase on the corresponding period a year earlier. For context, these figures came amid a sharp decline in global trade in Q3 and Q4 in 2022 - proving that we have created a real nexus of growth," he underlined during the presser in Delhi.