The UAE India CEPA was inked four years ago with a strong intention to create something that is structurally different from the typical trade pact between two nations the world over in terms of the economic complementarity that it shares. That was assessed against outcomes on May 21, 2026 at the CEPA Fourth Anniversary Open Majlis in New Delhi. The outcomes of the research are remarkable.
In fiscal year (FY) 2025-26, bilateral trade reached USD 101 25 billion, a new milestone in the bilateral trade on its way to USD 100 billion for the second consecutive year. In addition, the next phase of the corridor was formally launched as a Virtual Trade Corridor (VTC) on the MAITRI platform, which provides digital trade infrastructure at scale for the benefit of both governments.
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Four Years of UAE India CEPA
The baseline comparison tells the story of the UAE India CEPA most clearly. Five years ago, $43.30 billion in total bilateral trade was achieved. Since CEPA became effective in May 2022, the corridor has grown by over 50% from its original 2030 estimate, and is projected to reach $101.25 billion in FY 2025-26. To deal with this, both sides increased their long-term goal of $200 billion for bilateral trade by 2032.
The non-oil trade has now grown to almost two third of the total and India’s exports to UAE has substantially grown to $37.36 billion in FY 2025-26 and imports valued at $63.89 billion of which the majority is crude oil and gold. The underlying logic of this new phase of the deal is to balance out the deficit of $26.53 billion, to shift more Indian value-added products to the West and Emirati strategic capital to the East.
CEPA businesses have issued 122,036 Certificates of Origin in FY 2024-25, up 24.7 per cent from the previous year, showing the agreement is not just being used for diplomatic purposes but is also in use.
The MAITRI Virtual Trade Corridor
The most significant operational development from the May 21 anniversary event is the activation of the MAITRI Virtual Trade Corridor. Leaders at the event welcomed the operationalisation of the Virtual Trade Corridor on the MAITRI platform, which is expected to reduce shipping times and logistics costs across the bilateral corridor.
India UAE digital trade infrastructure through MAITRI functions as a single interconnected digital window for cargo clearance. A unified digital cargo clearance system was targeted for April 2026 under India’s Budget commitments, with the extension of duty deferral for Authorised Economic Operators to 30 days further smoothing trade flows. The MAITRI platform operationalises this vision by connecting UAE and Indian customs, logistics, and financial clearance systems in real time. Shipping times drop. Documentation costs fall. Goods that previously took days to clear can move faster through both systems simultaneously.
The CEPA’s digital trade chapter was designed from the outset to resolve connectivity and regulatory issues for both bilateral and global digital trade ambitions. The MAITRI corridor is the operational expression of that chapter, converting legal framework into functional infrastructure.
UAE India CEPA: Broader Strategic Context
This UAE India CEPA and its Digital Corridor are a component of a larger strategy. The India-Middle East-Europe (IMEE) Economic Corridor aims to reduce shipping time between India and Europe by up to 40 percent, with the UAE serving as the economic hub and bridge between Asia and Europe. The digital corridor will be combined with the Bharat Mart project at Jafza, which will add 2.7 million square feet of retail, warehouses, and logistics facilities to Jafza’s physical infrastructure and network from 2026.
The May 15 visit of the Modi government brought the dimension of defence, energy, and financial cooperation to the trade framework. The two sides agreed on USD 5 billion of UAE investments in Indian infrastructure and financial institutions, as well as cooperation in strategic petroleum reserves, LPG and maritime infrastructure. The UAE-India CEPA is no longer just a trade pact. It serves as a legal basis for one of the most multifaceted bilateral economic cooperation in the world.
The UICC also introduced a programme to expedite cross-border market access for Indian startups to join the UAE ecosystem and received a whopping 10,000+ applications for the first edition of the programme. The investment in that pipeline of early-stage companies that flow through a structured market access pathway through CEPA is the type of institutional investment that has a compounding effect over years, not quarters.
Four years in, the UAE India CEPA has doubled a trade corridor that was already significant, created digital infrastructure that makes the next $100 billion faster to achieve than the first, and embedded itself deeply enough in both economies that the $200 billion target by 2032 looks not aspirational, but operational.
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