What does the UAE have to gain from India-Pakistan peace?

UAE’s role in brokering peace talks between India and Pakistan reflects three major foreign policy concerns, reports Akshita Jain

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in January, 2017 (AFP/Getty)

When India and Pakistan announced a ceasefire along their de facto border last month – dialling down months of hostility – the name of the country which apparently helped broker this peace deal among the nuclear-armed neighbours took some by surprise.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the oil-rich Western Asian neighbour of arch-rivals New Delhi and Islamabad – is fast emerging as a soft power in the geopolitical region, moving from militarisation to diplomacy.

Regional experts told The Independent that the UAE primarily had three reasons to negotiate the talks – it wants to project itself as a key player in regional politics, elbow out Qatar, and to pander to the new administration in the United States.