Why the UAE supported Adani

The strategic importance of Haifa port is a factor in the UAE's calculations

Welcome to Nitin Pai’s cyberspace. You are reading The Acorn, a blog that has been opinionating for the world since 2003. (Elsewhere in this domain I have my published writing, updates on my teaching and research, and other things you had always been warned about. )

If its relationship with the Modi government is one angle, the UAE’s strategic calculations over the economic geography of West Asia offers the other. The Haaretz points this out today.

Haifa, Netanyahu predicted optimistically during last month’s handover ceremony, “will become the entry point and exit point for a vast number of goods that will reach the Mediterranean and Europe directly, without having to go around the Arabian peninsula.”

The United Arab Emirates, which has been a major backer of Adani’s for the past several years and would benefit from such a change, announced immediately after Hindenburg Research released its report that it would pick up a $400 million stake in a since-cancelled Adani Enterprises’ share sale — indicating that the Indian businessman enjoys support for his plans beyond Israel.

It now remains to be seen whether the dramatic weakening of the Adani Group will complicate its ability to manage its new Haifa port acquisition, and what repercussions there will be for the more ambitious ideas for the post-Abraham Accords economic landscape in the Middle East. [Haaretz]

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