DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ever since the signing of the Abraham Accords, Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain have been promoting joint business ventures, but there is more to it. In fact, in recent days, we have been witnessing an acceleration of business cooperation projects and initiatives that include not only these three countries, but also other international partners. And so, the Abraham Accords are both opening for Israel new markets — Gulf states, Central Asia, and so on — and facilitating access to existing markets — India, China and Japan. 

Last week, this was demonstrated in practice. Israel, India, the United States and the UAE decided Oct. 18 to form a quadrilateral forum for economic cooperation. This was decided during the visit of Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Israel. Participating in the meeting via video were American Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. 

At the ministerial meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said that the synergy between the countries will help them work together on infrastructure, digital infrastructure, transportation, ports, trains, naval security, etc. In the course of the meeting the four foreign ministers discussed the possibility of a joint infrastructure in the realms of transportation, technology and naval security. The four parties intend to hold another physical meeting in the next few months at the Expo in Dubai. 

The foreign minister’s announcement came at the same time as a meeting between Israeli, Indian and Emirati businessmen in Dubai, as part of Bank Hapoalim and the Israel Export Institute's business conference. The first Israeli business delegation arrived to Dubai in December 2020, dubbed “Beyond Business 1.” This year’s delegation, dubbed “Beyond Business 2” came with the clear goal of involving Israel in the enormous commerce between India and the UAE. The participating businesspeople from the three countries announced at the conference that they will start working together to increase the extent of commerce between their nations by using the relative advantages of each country.