The Ministry of External Affairs has appointed Dr. Deepak Mittal as India’s next Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates. A 1998-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service, Mittal has held key positions, including two stints in the Prime Minister’s Office under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also served as India’s Ambassador to Qatar between 2020 and 2022. Mittal played a pivotal role in establishing India’s first formal diplomatic contact with the Taliban and in defending Indian nationals at international forums. He will succeed Sunjay Sudhir, the current Ambassador to the UAE, who is set to retire in September.
The UAE is among India’s closest strategic partners in West Asia, a key energy supplier, and home to over 3.5 million Indian nationals, one of the largest expatriate communities in the region. Diplomatic ties between India and the UAE were established in 1972 and have strengthened considerably in recent years, gaining momentum after Prime Minister Modi’s landmark visit to the Emirates in 2015, the first by an Indian Prime Minister in over three decades.
Most recently, in February 2024, PM Modi visited the UAE to inaugurate the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, an event symbolic of cultural and interfaith harmony. This marked his seventh visit to the UAE in nine years, including an earlier visit on December 1, 2023, to attend COP-28 in Dubai.
