Foreign Minister S Jaishankar will travel to Qatar and Kuwait and his deputy, V Muraleedharan to Oman later this month as part of India’s continued rapprochement with the Gulf countries that is described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the extended neighborhood of the India, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday, as the chief of the Indian army, General MM Naravane, prepares to start his visit to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Jaishankar, who had focused on deepening ties with West Asia through the Covid pandemic, addressed the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council at the annual political dialogue last month and then traveled to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. .
“India shares warm, close and multifaceted relations with the Gulf countries, underpinned by historical cultural, religious and economic ties,” said a government official, underscoring how New Delhi, after reaching out to neighboring countries in recent weeks – had put the focus on western Asia.
The dates and the specific agenda for the two ministerial visits to Qatar, Kuwait and Oman later this month are still being worked out.
Officials told the Hindustan Times that a key focus of this increased engagement at this point was to protect the interests of Indian workers who were employed in West Asian countries before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted economic activity and sank the global economy. in a contraction.
India is calling on the Gulf countries to begin opening their doors to the thousands of workers who had returned during the pandemic. This was also one of the central themes of Jaishankar’s speech to the GCC Troika in early November, in which he urged GCC leaders to facilitate the return of Indian workers and professionals eager to resume work through arrangements. sustainable travel bubbles.
Officials believe that New Delhi’s efforts to reach the Gulf countries during the peak of the pandemic, when India sent not just medicines but medical equipment to the “extended neighborhood” countries, had kept the country in good stead. The Indian gesture was also reciprocated by the countries of West Asia. Like when the UAE was sending immigrants from all other countries after the pandemic outbreak, India asked Kuwait and the UAE to be slow with repatriation of Indian citizens because state governments did not have the infrastructure to do so. in front of the influx. The request was accepted immediately.
Six West Asian countries – the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain – accounted for nearly 70% of all Indians living abroad. The United Arab Emirates is home to the largest number of Indians, 3.4 million, accounting for about a quarter of all NRIs worldwide. Another 2.6 million were in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain were home to another 2.9 million NRIs.
Between them, they sent home almost half of India’s total foreign remittances of $ 80 billion.
The World Bank, in October, had projected a 9% decrease in foreign remittances to India due to Covid-induced restrictions and the disruption of economic activity around the world.
Officials said India is working closely with the United Arab Emirates, which stopped granting work and visit visas to citizens of 12 countries, including Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan, seen as a sequel to Islamabad it is trying to defy. Saudi Arabia’s leadership in the Muslim world and its position against the peace of the United Arab Emirates deal with Israel that paved the way for relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. According to a Nikkei Asian Review report last week, many of the job opportunities Pakistani workers are losing are going to Indian workers.
Indian officials said that the UAE’s visa ban in Pakistan was just one aspect of Islamabad’s growing diplomatic isolation. Pakistan’s embarrassing moments when its request for a side event on Kashmir was rejected at the recent meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was another.
Indian officials also cite a shift in Malaysia’s approach to South Asia after the departure of Mahathir Mohamad. There are clear signs that Malaysia is looking at its relationship with India from a broader perspective. This change prompted New Delhi to lower the tariff on palm oil last month, prompting Malaysian Foreign Minister Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein to tweet his note of thanks to Foreign Minister Jaishankar.
Or when Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister S Jaishankar planned to halt transit in Iran en route to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting in Russia in September, Tehran requested to meet with Indian leaders. and turned the halt into a bilateral agreement. to visit. It was during these meetings that Iran indicated that it was eager to reestablish its energy relationship with India and it emerged that New Delhi and Tehran were on the same page when it came to Afghanistan.
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