The UAE is India's top trading partner with two-way (non-oil) trade valued at 44.5 billion US dollar in 2008-2009. Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor told this to reporters in Abu Dhabi during his current official visit to the country. He said this accounts for about half of India's total trade with the entire six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries reaching 86.9 billion US dollar. This volume exceeds trade with European Union (USD 80.6 billion) and ASEAN countries (USD 44.6 billion). UAE also tops India's export destinations with a total of USD 24 billion while a total of USD 20.6 billion in imports for the same period puts the UAE in the second place on India's top imports after China (USD 31.3 billion) but ahead of Saudi Arabia (USD 19.4 billion). India, however, is ambitious for more and is looking forward to further adding impetus to the already strong and long-standing economic ties with the UAE with a focus on investments, he said.