Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that strengthening ties with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was the most important foreign policypriority of the Indian government, adding he was glad that the latter attachedsimilar importance to the bilateral relations.“Strengthening the relationshipis one of the most important foreign policy priorities of my government. I amhappy that the leadership of the UAE attaches similar importance to relationswith India. With unstinted commitment and cooperation from both sides, we havecome a long way in the last five years. But for this relationship, even the skyis not the limit," PM Modi was quoted as saying by the Khaleej Timesduring an event in his ongoing visit to the Gulf country.

PM Modi added: "I am happy that our relations with theUAE have developed from a mere buyer-seller relationship to that of acomprehensive strategic partnership in the last four years. This reflectsconvergence of interests and the keen interest taken by both in promoting theunprecedented synergy in the relationship for shared security, peace andprosperity."PM Modi reached Abu Dhabi, UAE on Friday on the second leg ofhis three-nation visit.

PM Modi would be conferred with the highest civilian awardby the United Arab Emirates as his visit to the Islamic nation draws to a closeon Saturday. The UAE will award PM Modi with the Order of Zayed, which wasconferred earlier in April 2019 in recognition of his distinguished leadershipfor giving a big boost to bilateral relations between the two countries, an MEAstatement said.To this end, PM Modi said, "I feel very honoured to receivethe UAE's highest civil honour, the Order of Zayed. It is testimony to ourgrowing partnership and is also an honour for the entire Indian nation of 1.3billion people."PM Modi also heaped praises on the UAE Crown Prince,Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, referring to him as his brother and saidthe two shared enormous goodwill and mutual respect.“The Crown Prince and Iregard each other as brothers. We have developed enormous goodwill and mutualrespect. I believe that the excellent rapport between the two of us is animportant driving force in realising the true potential of our relationship,”PM Modi said.

Furthermore, PM Modi termed UAE’s commitment to invest $75billion in India as ‘gamechanger’. He added the India-UAE relationship was astrategic partnership based on shared vision and objectives.

PM Modi also spoke about terrorism.

“Terrorism and extremism are a threat to humankind. It isthe responsibility of everyone to oppose them with all the force at theircommand. India and the UAE have rapidly expanded their cooperation forsecurity, based not only on their common concerns but also their sharedvalues," he said..