UAE foreign minister to visit India

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) United Arab Emirates (UAE) Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan will be on a two-day official visit to India from Thursday when he is likely to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations with his counterpart S.M. Krishna, including energy security.

During his stay here, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan is also scheduled to meet India's top political leadership including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

UAE is important to India, being a significant contributor to its energy security, apart from being home to an estimated 1.75 million Indian expatriates.

India enjoys close and multi-faceted relations with the UAE. During the last three years, the two countries were each other's largest trading partners.

"Our bilateral trade during 2011-12 was $67 billion," India's External Affairs Ministry said in a release here.