UAE opens new consulate in India’s Hyderabad

The UAE on Wednesday opened a new consulate office in Hyderabad, its fourth mission in India.

The UAE already has its embassy in the capital Delhi and consulates in Mumbai — India’s financial center and the most populous city — and Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of the state of Kerala.

The new consulate in Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana state, is the second such office in southern India.

The mission was inaugurated by India’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs V. Muraleedharan, and his Emirati counterpart Ali Al-Sayegh.

Muraleedharan took to Twitter following the ceremony to say he was “confident that the consulate will further deepen the India-UAE trade and investment relationship,” and that it would also strengthen people-to-people ties.

Relations between India and the UAE received a major boost when their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement came into force in May last year.

The opening of the consulate was a long-awaited development, and Sunjay Sudhir, Indian ambassador to the UAE, said it was a “significant development” that will help build better connections between the UAE and the local government.

He added: “The new consulate will increase people-to-people contact and be a good reference point for the Indian diaspora from the state.”

Hyderabad-based Emigrants Welfare Forum last year advocated the inauguration of the mission to help facilitate hundreds of thousands of Indians traveling to the UAE from the region.

Political analyst Mir Ayoob Khan said: “The UAE and Hyderabad are culturally connected and many people from the Gulf nation visit the city for various purposes.

“Hyderabad is an IT city and lots of business links are there between the city and Dubai and other places in the UAE.

The opening of the new consulate will help in boosting the business links and help the locals to get visas easily.”