New Delhi: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday said the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will set up an office in the UAE soon.

The minister made the announcement during a three-day visit to Abu Dhabi.

“UAE-India relations are in a very good position today. In a strategic partnership, especially in education and skill, India and UAE have strong relations. We are opening an IIT in UAE, and many prominent universities of India have already come here.

“More universities can come in the near future. More than 100 schools of CBSE, India’s prominent national education board, are functional in UAE…. We are soon going to open a CBSE office here,” Pradhan told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

The minister of the first day of his three-day visit to the UAE on Wednesday met its Minister of Education Ahmad Al Falasi and signed an MoU to strengthen existing educational cooperation facilitating student and faculty mobility and various other initiatives.

Pradhan said that UAE being a global economic hotspot and India being a global talent hotspot, both sides should work together to build a knowledge bridge to cement their civilisational connect.

“The ministers reviewed the bilateral engagements in education and skill development, particularly the progress on points discussed during our meeting on the sidelines of the fourth education working group as a part of the G20 India,” the Ministry of Education said in a statement.

“The MoU is expected to facilitate regulations, legal structures and best practices in general and higher education in both countries, framework and policies in general and higher education including national qualifications frameworks in order to facilitate mutual recognition of qualifications between both the countries, and academic collaboration between higher education institutions in both the countries for offering twinning, joint degree and dual degree programmes, among others,” it added.