Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been postponed amid global concern over the highly-contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus.
The Prime Minister was scheduled to visit the Gulf nation on January 6, sources said. This was supposed to be his first foreign trip in 2022.
PM Modi’s visit to the strategically important country was planned as the two countries were looking at celebrating 50 years of their diplomatic ties.
The Prime Minister was also expected to visit the ongoing Dubai Expo during the visit. Both India and the UAE have been holding talks to firm up a comprehensive free trade agreement to further strengthen their economic ties.
The UAE is home to over 3.3 million Indians who account for around 30 per cent of the total population of the Gulf state. The Indian community in the country has been playing a significant role in overall cultural and people-to-people ties between the two sides.
Prime Minister Modi had first visited the UAE in 2015 when the ties between the two countries witnessed a major upswing.
The Prime Minister again visited the UAE in February 2018 for the 6th World Government Summit in Dubai, where India was the guest of honour. He visited the Gulf nation again in August 2019 to receive the UAE’s highest civilian award, ‘the Order of Zayed’.
Omicron becomes global worry
The rising cases of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, which is more transmissible than the Delta strain, have triggered an alarm across India and the world.
The Delta strain was responsible for the deadly second wave of infections in the country in April-May this year when lakhs of people succumbed to the disease and the healthcare system was pushed to the verge of collapse.
India has reported nearly 800 cases of the new strain since the detection of Omicron in South Africa in November’s last week.
