Abu Dhabi crown prince pays tribute at Rajghat

New Delhi, Feb 11 (IANS/WAM) Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who is on a three-day visit to India, on Thursday visited Rajghat and laid a wreath at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi.

He was accompanied by union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.

Sheikh Mohamed, who observed a minute's silence in respect, also planted a sapling at the site and watered a tree that the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan had planted on a visit to India.

"The world is in much need today for the principles and values that Gandhi lived by," Sheikh Mohamed wrote in the guestbook.

"These values are based on justice, peace, equality and renunciation of violence. It is such values and principles that brought about the unity and development of the Indian nation, and they are the same values that we in the United Arab Emirates live by. They were sowed in our hearts and minds by a great man whose name is Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE," he wrote.

The crown prince also viewed a collection of sayings by Mahatma Gandhi and was offered a commemorative gift at the site.

He was also accompanied by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, crown prince of Dubai, Lt. Gen. Sheikh Saif bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy prime minister of the UAE and minister of the interior, and Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chief of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court.

Also present were Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE's minister of economy, Saqr bin Ghubash Saeed Ghubash, minister of human resources and emiratisation, Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, minister of state for foreign affairs, Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashimy, minister of state for international cooperation, Suhail bin Mohammed Faraj Faris Al Mazrouei, minister of energy, Sultan bin Ahmed Sultan Al Jaber, minister of state, Ali bin Hammad Al Shamsi, deputy secretary-general of the National Security Council, Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Affairs Authority, Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Bana, UAE's ambassador to India, Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei, under-secretary of the Abu Dhabi Crown Prince's Court, Maj. Gen. Staff Pilot Ibrahim Nasser Mohammed Al Alaw, commander of the UAE Air Force and Air Defence among others.

Sheikh Mohamed, who arrived here on Wednesday, was earlier on Thursday accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan here.

He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi later on Thursday following which a number of agreements between the two countries are expected to be signed.

The crown prince's visit comes six months after Modi's visit to the UAE in August last year during which the Gulf nation that is home to 2.6 million expatriate Indians committed $75 billion in investments in India's infrastructure sector.

--IANS/WAM

ab/bg