After finishing his UAE go to, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will journey to Doha on February 14 to carry bilateral conferences with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, there, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs introduced on Monday.
This go to assumes significance because it comes after a diplomatic victory of India following the discharge of eight Indian Navy personnel who had been detained in Qatar for practically 18 months since August 2022.
“From UAE after finishing his go to on February 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will journey to Doha, Qatar on February 14 afternoon. In the course of the go to, PM Modi will maintain bilateral conferences with Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and different excessive dignitaries in Qatar,” Overseas Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra mentioned whereas addressing a particular briefing on PM Modi’s go to to UAE.
The Overseas Secretary expressed that PM Modi’s go to would offer a possibility for leaders to debate methods to additional deepen and strengthen the multifaceted partnership.
“PM Modi’s go to to Qatar will present a possibility for the highest management of the 2 international locations to debate methods to additional deepen and strengthen our multifaceted partnership in addition to alternate views on totally different regional and worldwide problems with mutual significance,” Kwatra famous.
Kwatra highlighted that this would be the second go to of PM Modi to Qatar, with the final one happening in June 2016. Emphasising the rising ties between India and Qatar, the Overseas Secretary talked about high-level visits to Qatar.
“There have been a number of high-level exchanges between India and Qatar lately. You’d recall the go to of Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar to Doha in November 2022 as additionally the go to of then Vice President Venkaiah Naidu in June 2022. Exterior Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has additionally undertaken a number of visits to Qatar in final three to four years,” the Overseas Secretary additionally mentioned.
The connection between the 2 international locations has grown multifaceted with sturdy power partnership and collaboration in tradition, training, and safety. The bilateral commerce at present stands at roughly USD 20 billion, with Qatar rising as a big investor throughout varied sectors in India.
“The bilateral relationship between India and Qatar that has been steadily rising features a complete span, together with political ties, commerce and funding linkages, a powerful power partnership and ties within the area of tradition, training and safety,” he mentioned, including, “Sturdy bilateral commerce between India and Qatar at present stands at roughly USD 20 bn and Qatar can be a big investor in India throughout the entire vary of economies.”
Particularly mentioning the current settlement between QatarEnergy and India’s Petronet for the provision of seven.5 million metric tons per yr of LNG from Qatar to India for a period of 20 years, beginning in 2028, Kwatra mentioned, ” You’d bear in mind following the lately concluded India Vitality Week, QatarEnergy and India’s Petronet had signed an settlement for the provision of seven.5 million metric tons per yr of LNG from Qatrar to India for 20 years beginning 2028″.
The big Indian diaspora in Qatar, numbering round 840,000, was underscored as an important connection between the 2 nations. In a serious diplomatic triumph for India, eight veterans of the Indian Navy who had been sentenced to loss of life in Qatar, had been launched by Doha on Monday. The capital punishment was commuted to an prolonged jail time period earlier following diplomatic intervention by New Delhi.
Amid determined pleas by the anxious kin of the Navy veterans to safe their launch and protected passage again to their homeland, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) had assured that it might mobilise all diplomatic channels and organize authorized help to carry them again.
Of the eight former Navy officers, seven have already returned to India, the Ministry of Exterior Affairs (MEA) knowledgeable by an official assertion earlier in the present day.
The Union authorities launched an official assertion welcoming the choice to set the veteran officers free, saying, “The Authorities of India welcomes the discharge of eight Indian nationals working for the Dahra International firm who had been detained in Qatar. Seven out of the eight of them have returned to India. We admire the choice by the Amir of the State of Qatar to allow the discharge and home-coming of those nationals.”
The eight Indian nationals had been imprisoned in Qatar since October 2022 and had been accused of allegedly spying on a submarine programme. The retired naval personnel had been sentenced to loss of life by a Qatar courtroom on costs that haven’t but been made public formally.
Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai and mentioned bilateral partnership and the “well-being of the Indian neighborhood” residing in Qatar.
