India and Qatar keen to further boost relations

DOHA: External Affairs Minister of India, Sushma Swaraj, said yesterday that Qatar and India are keen to further increase cooperation in the unexplored areas. Qatar’s leadership is keen on strategic partnership with India.

Addressing members of the Indian community, the External Affairs Minister said: “The relations between Qatar and India are very old and historic. The relations, between the two countries, have strengthened further recently, especially after the blockade imposed on Qatar.”

The Embassy of India yesterday organised an interactive meeting of the Minister with members of the Indian community at Sheraton Hotel.

“India is counted among the countries who have stood with Qatar during the blockade and this has been recognised by the leadership of the country. Qatar’s leadership is very keen on a strategic partnership with India and on high level engagement with India. Qatar wants to explore opportunities for cooperation in the areas which are not explored so far,” she added.

In a speech, which saw several rounds of applause, she said that India has changed a lot, compared to what it was in the past. India is now known as the fastest growing economy in the world. “Today India is a country which shapes the global agenda,” Sushma Swaraj said.

The External Affairs Minister added that she discussed several issues, concerning Indian expatriates, with Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

One of the issues was regarding the need of a bigger plot of land for the Indian embassy because of the large size of Indian community in Qatar. There are over 700,000 Indians in Qatar who form the largest expatriate community here.

A book titled ‘ Welcome to Qatar’ was also released yesterday by the Minister for new people coming to Qatar, especially blue collared workers, in English, Hindi and Malayalam.

She said that Indian government has demonstrated that if any Indian citizen is in problem in any part of the world then the government is committed to rescue the citizen.

She added that India had evacuated over than 100,000 people from various operations including the operations in Yemen, Iraq and Libya. “In Yemen operation, we evacuated over 5,000 Indian nationals and we also evacuated 2,000 people of foreign nationalities. These nationals were from 45 countries including nations like US, UK, France, Germany,” she said.

She added that India is swift in helping its neighbours in case of need.

“If there is any calamity or problem in neighbouring countries, then we are the first responder in crisis, whether it earthquake in Nepal or floods in Sri Lanka,” she said.

She said that Indian expatriates have played positive role in Qatar. The member of Indian community are the goodwill ambassadors of India in Qatar.

Agreement signed for Joint Commission

Meanwhile Qatar and India yesterday signed a joint declaration to establish the Joint Commission between the Government of the State of Qatar and the Government of the Republic of India. It is headed by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the two countries.

H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani signed for Qatar, while it was signed for India by Sushma Swaraj.

The joint commission will be charged with the following tasks: formulating the required basis to strengthen the relations between the two countries particularly in economic, commercial, cultural, scientific, technological, information technology and educational fields; following up the implementation of the agreements concluded between the two countries; finding suitable solutions for the resulting problems of the implementation thereof; facilitating the exchange of information and expertise, and encouraging bilateral consultation in service of cooperation between the two countries.

By Sachin Kumar | The Peninsula

اجتمع سعادة الشيخ محمد بن عبدالرحمن آل ثاني نائب رئيس مجلس الوزراء وزير الخارجية اليوم الاثنين، مع سعادة السيدة سوشما سواراج وزيرة الشؤون الخارجية في جمهورية الهند الصديقة، التي تقوم بزيارة رسمية إلى البلاد حاليا.

جرى خلال الاجتماع بحث العلاقات الثنائية وسبل دعمها وتطويرها، وتطورات الأزمة الخليجية، وجهود الوساطة الكويتية، بالإضافة إلى عدد من القضايا الإقليمية والدولية ذات الاهتمام المشترك.

وعقب الاجتماع، جرى التوقيع على الإعلان المشترك لإنشاء اللجنة المشتركة بين حكومة دولة قطر وحكومة جمهورية الهند برئاسة وزيري خارجية البلدين.

ووقع عن جانب دولة قطر سعادة الشيخ محمد بن عبدالرحمن آل ثاني نائب رئيس مجلس الوزراء وزير الخارجية، فيما وقع عن جانب جمهورية الهند سعادة السيدة سوشما سواراج وزيرة الشؤون الخارجية.

وتتمثل مهام اللجنة المشتركة في وضع الأسس اللازمة لتعزيز العلاقات بين البلدين خاصة في المجالات الاقتصادية والتجارية والثقافية والعلمية والتقنية والمعلوماتية والتعليم، ومتابعة تنفيذ الاتفاقيات الموقعة بين البلدين، وإيجاد الحلول المناسبة للمشكلات التي قد تنجم عن تنفيذها، بالإضافة إلى تيسير تبادل المعلومات والخبرات، وتشجيع المشاورات الثنائية التي تخدم مجالات التعاون بين البلدين.