Indian minister Jaishankar arrives in UAE

The minister tweeted a photo of himself elbow-bumping Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.

He tweeted he was delighted to meet Sheikh Abdullah and that he looked "forward to our discussions".

Coincidentally, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is already in the UAE. In an interview with Khaleej Times, Qureshi had said that there was no meeting planned between the two ministers.

Arindam Bagchi, Spokesperson, Indian Ministry of External Affairs, had said on Saturday that Jaishankar's discussions would focus on economic cooperation and community welfare.

This is a rare instance of both Indian and Pakistan foreign ministers being in the UAE at the same time.

This development comes after Yousef Al Otaiba, the UAE Ambassador to the US, confirmed last Wednesday that the UAE is mediating between India and Pakistan to forge a functional relationship between the two neighbours and rivals. India and Pakistan enjoy warm ties with the UAE built over decades of economic and people-to-people contacts.

There have been a lot of ministerial-level bilateral visits made in the past few months.

Jaishankar visited the country in November last year. Sheikh Abdullah met Jaishankar in New Delhi in February. Also, V Muraleedharan, Indian Minister of State for External Affairs and Parliamentary Affairs, visited the UAE in January.