India keen for security cooperation agreement with UAE

India is keen to sign an early agreement with the United Arab Emirates on security cooperation, addressing issues specially related to counter-terrorism and maritime security.

President Pratibha Patil during discussions with Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE Shiekh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Makhtoum yesterday stressed the need for early signing of the Agreement on Security Cooperation and noted that the two sides have already had agreements on extradition and on mutual legal assistance.

Official sources said that Home Minister P Chidambram has invited his UAE counterpart to New Delhi for the signing of the agreement on security cooperation.

The UAE Vice-President said that the two countries already have "very good cooperation" in the field of security and agreed that the two countries should assist each other on their security concerns.

Later, the President addressed a function at the Dubai International Academic City where she hailed that globally recognised Indian brands of education were setting up bases abroad.

"Brand India has been served well by our world recognised educational institutes", she said.

The City has campuses of some of the top Indian educational institutions like BITS and S P Jain Institute of Management.

"Not long ago, it was the brilliance of only some individual Indians which attracted global interest. Thereafter, premier institutes of higher learning like the IITs and the IIMs emerged, and soon became regular by-words for excellence across boardrooms and R&D labs in all continents.

I am heartened that such globally recognised Indian brands of education are increasingly venturing outside and setting up bases abroad in clusters like the Dubai International Academic City. Brand India has been served well by our world recognised educational institutes," Patil said.

She said that the Indian student community in the UAE has the unique privilege of being recipients of knowledge transferred in the Indian way even as they are exposed to a global milieu.

"In the coming millennia, the world will see a lot more of India and through your work and conduct, you can contribute to its visibility and growth.

Thus Patil said that students should aim to be not merely symbols of the success of individuals and institutions, but represent the strengths, potential and future of a resurgent India on the world stage.