India and the United Arab Emirates are working on a large-scale maritime evacuation agreement routed through Fujairah Port in response to escalating tensions in West Asia. According to India Seatrade News, the first-of-its-kind pact is expected to be discussed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 15 May 2026 stopover at Fujairah ahead of his Europe tour to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Italy.
The agreement is shaped around the roughly 4.3 million Indian nationals living in the UAE and the broader Indian workforce of around 10 million across West Asia. Disruption of Gulf air traffic by the regional conflict and the stranding of thousands of passengers across the Middle East has raised the strategic value of a maritime evacuation option, with Indian officials viewing the Fujairah corridor as a more sustainable fallback route than air links alone.
The single most important strategic feature of the route is that Fujairah Port sits outside the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint, on the Gulf of Oman coast. With Hormuz transits squeezed, Fujairah can keep operating without the direct pressure of the naval blockade enforced since 13 April amid US-Iran tensions. The port is the world's second-largest bunkering hub and the UAE's largest deep-water port on the eastern seaboard, doubling as an alternative gateway for cargo flows during the crisis.
In the current picture, with Dubai-linked routes facing disruption, a significant share of the UAE-bound cargo traffic is being rerouted through Fujairah and Khor Fakkan Port, with goods then trucked inland by road. This rerouting captures the route-optimisation strain logistics operators are living with under the structural pressure of the Hormuz blockade. India Seatrade News notes that despite the ceasefire announced last month, recent drone attacks reported in the UAE and Kuwait — alongside continuing US-Iran exchanges over maritime access — show that instability persists, framing the backdrop against which the pact is taking shape.
Key Takeaways:
1. India and the UAE are working on a first-of-its-kind maritime evacuation pact via Fujairah Port.
2. The pact will be discussed during PM Modi's 15 May Fujairah stopover ahead of his Europe tour.
3. It targets a fallback route for the 4.3 million Indians in the UAE and 10 million workers in West Asia.
4. Fujairah's location outside the Strait of Hormuz lets it operate free of the US-Iran blockade pressure.
5. Together with Khor Fakkan Port, Fujairah has become the alternative gateway for non-Dubai UAE cargo.
