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How India emerged as Global Pharmacy for the Gulf, and how UAE supported India during Covid peak for LPG!

India has emerged as a "global pharmacy" that also serves the Gulf region's needs significantly. In turn, during the peak of the LPG pandemic for a new scheme announced by Modi to provide three refills free of cost to BPL families, the UAE supported us for our urgent need.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke the protocol to greet him with a warm embrace in 2017, when UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan descended from his plane in New Delhi. Two years later, he did the same with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia.These are not isolated incidents, but reflect a profound reset in India-Gulf relations, the contours of which are characterised by camaraderie, mutual respect and a high degree of confidence.

Historically, the relations between the Gulf nations and India over the centuries have included expressions of common heritage and culture that are contained in the strands of people’s daily lives. Our mythologies, languages, beliefs, food and architecture have filtered through each other in ways that have not yet been fully understood or explored, apart from the fact that Mecca and Medina, holy sites for many of our people, are physically located in that area.

How India emerged as Global Pharmacy for the Gulf, and how UAE supported India during Covid peak for LPG!The relationship today, however has gone far further than being a feature of organic historicity. Indeed, it has traversed more in the last six years than it has ever been. Under the vision of Modi, through its “Look West” policy, the leadership has made assiduous efforts to improve relations with nations in the Gulf region. Our relationship with some of these countries has been elevated to the level of strategic partnerships, which is a higher level of engagement than bilateral ties, and which usually includes strategic dialogues in different fields, but not formal alliances.

At the level of our PM and the Saudi crown prince, New Delhi and Riyadh have formed the Strategic Partnership Council. The strategic partnership with high-level ministerial groups guiding the relationship was also substantially elevated by the UAE. These partnerships have been pushed to their present status by the two elements of intense trade interaction with both goods and individuals, and the personal touch of the top leaders concerned.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia, respectively, are India’s third and fourth largest trading partners. There has been a substantial increase in the investment aspect in our bilateral economic engagement – major announcements include potential investment by Riyadh of $100 billion in the areas of oil, manufacturing, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining. Meanwhile in the top 10 sources of FDI inflows into India, the UAE features.

The Gulf region’s large Indian diaspora, estimated to be more than 8.5 million Indians, serves as an important link in our bilateral relations. Though India stands to benefit from the Gulf countries‘ huge remittance inflows, estimated at $50 billion in 2018, the host countries reap the benefits of having at their disposal a skilled working population. Consequently, there has been a major change in the attitude of GCC countries to the sensitivities of Indian diaspora – be they cultural or in their social engagements. For instance, permitting the construction of a Hindu temple in the UAE is an indication of this trend.

The backbone of trade and investment, however, has been the hydrocarbon industry. India’s trade in hydrocarbon with the region for 2019-2020 was worth $62 billion, which is 36 percent of total trade in hydrocarbon.

In the next step of India’s Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR) programme, Saudi Arabia and the UAE can partner with us. Also during Modi’s visit to the UAE, a group of Indian oil companies were granted a 10% stake in Abu Dhabi’s offshore Lower Zakum concession in a historic agreement.

Modi became the first Indian PM to visit the UAE in 30 years in August 2015, and he visited it again in 2018 and 2019. During his last visit, in recognition of his role in improving ties between the two countries, he received the Order of Zayed, the highest civil decoration in the UAE. Three years ago, in 2019, he was given the King Abdulaziz Sash Award of Saudi Arabia and the King Hamad Order of the Renaissance, Bahrain’s third highest civil order. With high profile visits to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Iran and Bahrain, which were followed by the visit of Gulf dignitaries to New Delhi, Modi had a calibrated approach to the forces of the Gulf region.

When one of the region’s most respected figures, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, died in September, the Indian government announced a nationwide day of state mourning, a move that was much appreciated in Kuwait. In the crisis that ensued globally after the Covid-19 disease became a pandemic, this personal contact between the top leadership paid rich dividends.

India ensured the uninterrupted supply of medicines, food and other vital products to the Gulf region and also facilitated the deployment to many Gulf countries of about 6,000 Indian health professionals in the midst of the lockdown to meet their citizens’ health needs. India sent a 15-member Rapid Response Team to Kuwait in April 2020 for capacity building and knowledge sharing to resolve the pandemic.

India has emerged as a “global pharmacy” that also serves the Gulf region’s needs significantly. In turn, during the peak of the LPG pandemic for a new scheme announced by Modi to provide three refills free of cost to BPL families, the UAE supported us for our urgent need. All the Gulf countries took great care of the Indians in their countries during the pandemic months and ensured an orderly return to India for those who wished to do so.

The Gulf region is a reliable energy security partner for India, while India is rising the region’s food security. Our partnership, however has shifted beyond mere transactional meaning. Prime Minister Modi and the leadership of the Gulf are recreating a link to civilization that has rustled over the years.

From some news agency

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