MENA <> India Corridor 
MENA+ Edition 
Egypt Edition 
UAE Edition 
Saudi Edition 
Logistics (MENA) 
Share
Read Full Issue 
India could be next on the UAE’s defense shopping list: The UAE is in early-stage talks to buy India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile and Akashteer automated air-defense system as Abu Dhabi accelerates arms procurement and diversifies beyond its traditional Western suppliers after the Iran war, Reuters reports, citing sources familiar with the discussions. The talks are “progressing fast,” one Indian source said.
What’s on the table: BrahMos is a 290-km-range missile that can be launched from land, sea, or air, while Akashteer connects data from multiple systems to respond to aerial threats. Akashteer could complement the UAE’s US-made THAAD and Patriot defenses, while BrahMos would add another strike option alongside its ATACMS missiles.
Affirming warm and robust bilateral trade ties which saw a “major upswing, and in that upswing, the defense partnership also plays an important role, and that also has strengthened and deepened, so that is where we are in our defense partnership,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
IN CONTEXT- Against the backdrop of a defense trade imbalance, we broke down how India-UAE defense trade remains largely driven by sporadic aerospace and maritime transactions rather than a broad-based manufacturing or weapons procurement partnership.
Why it matters: A broader supplier base would give the UAE “more strategic autonomy” without antagonizing Washington, ACLED analyst Pearl Pandya said. The talks fit Abu Dhabi’s wider push to bring more defense manufacturing in-house through foreign partnerships beyond the US, including a UAE-India framework agreed to in May to deepen industrial collaboration and technology sharing.
Watch this space: Any BrahMos missile sale would require Russian approval as a joint developer of the weapon, although one source said Moscow’s ties with Abu Dhabi make that unlikely to be a hurdle. India also has a history of reported export talks that do not result in agreements, so this one is far from done.
