NEW DELHI: Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu is in UAE on Sunday to offer condolences on behalf of the Indian Government to the UAE leadership on the demise of Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi.
There is a high possibility of VP Venkaiah Naidu interacting with world leaders, who had flown to the country to offer condolences over the date of the UAE leader.
Speculations are rife about VP Venkaiah Naidu meeting French President Emmanuel Macron, who had already reached Abu Dhabi and called on newly elected UAE president Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
The meeting held significance as Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a brief stopover in Paris to meet President Macron on his re-election a week back. Incidentally, it was the first meeting of a world leader after President Macron’s re-election. The meeting had set the alarm bells ringing over a developing close relationship between India and France, a key European nation.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, US Vice President Kamala Harris, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israel’s President Isaac Herzog are also expected to reach Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, either on Sunday or a day later Monday.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and some other world leaders are travelling to Abu Dhabi on Sunday to offer their condolences on the demise of UAE President, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed.
The new President Sheikh Mohamed accepted condolences and sympathies from several world leaders including Sultan Haitham bin Tariq bin Taimur Al Said of Oman, King Abdullah II Ibn Al Hussein of Jordan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Iraqi President Dr Barham Salih, President Kais Saied of Tunisia and Lieutenant-General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan Abdelrahman, Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereign Transitional Council.
The Gulf nation is observing three-day nationwide mourning, following which all the businesses will be closed across the length and breadth of the oil-rich UAE.
The galaxy of world leaders visiting the UAE shows the growing stature of the country under Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, who had helped usher a new era for the country.