India, May 19 -- Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi's eighth visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was short but salient. In a barely three-hour-long stay in Abu Dhabi, Modi not only embraced and closed ranks with his "brother" and ruler of the UAE, Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ), at a critical moment but also laid the foundation for elevating an already robust Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The timing of Modi's UAE stopover conveyed crucial signals in the context of the US-Israel war against Iran, and Iran's massive asymmetric retaliation in the form of thousands of missile and drone strikes on the UAE. Exactly when the UAE was reeling from threats to its airspace due to relentless Iranian military attacks on its home soil and facing a...