SOURCE ; NEW18
Last Updated:December 23, 2024, 10:13 IST
Kuwait became the fifth country in the Middle East to bestow upon PM Modi the highest honour of ‘Order of Mubarak the Great’.
The emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah, conferred Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the West Asian nation’s highest civilian award ‘The Order of Mubarak the Great’. (IMAGE: NARENDRA MODI/X)
In 2014, when Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India for the first time, his critics in Delhi’s power corridors said two things: that he did not understand foreign policy and that the Arab world would never like him. In 2024, exactly ten years later, those same critics must be looking for a place to hide as Kuwait became the fifth country in the Middle East to bestow upon PM Modi the highest honour of ‘Order of Mubarak the Great’. Before this, Saudi Arabia had bestowed the second-highest civilian honour upon PM Modi, Palestine gave him the highest civilian honour in 2018, and the UAE in 2019 accorded the highest civilian honour, the ‘Order of Zayed’, on PM Modi. In 2019, Bahrain, too, conferred PM Modi with the third-highest honour of ‘Order of Renaissance’.
Since assuming office, PM Modi has made the region his priority, which is also proven by the frequency of his visits to the region. PM Modi has been to the UAE seven times, twice to Saudi Arabia and Qatar, once to Bahrain and Oman, once to Israel and Palestine, once to Jordan, and once to Iran.
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In the early days after Independence, India had a buyer-seller relationship with countries in the Middle East. They were the sellers of crude, and India was the buyer, but PM Modi has transformed this relationship by establishing leader-to-leader ties with the leader of every country in the region. For example, PM Modi addresses the President of the UAE, Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as ‘Brother’. PM Modi assisted in the process of land approval for the BAPS first Hindu Temple in Abu Dhabi during his tenure, and later he inaugurated the temple in 2023.
In 2018, PM Modi rode in a helicopter provided by the Jordanian government and escorted by helicopters from the Israel Air Force. When Indians were stuck in Sudan after civil war broke out between two warring groups and they had to be rescued, the Saudi government provided India with the base and medical assistance, and even Royal Saudi Naval Forces rescued a few Indian nationals.
PM Modi also refers to the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, as ‘Brother’. Last year, India managed to get pardoned the eight former naval officers accused of spying by the Qatari government only because of the personal rapport of PM Modi with the Qatari leadership, and after their release, PM Modi personally visited Qatar to thank the leadership for their generous gesture. During India’s G20 Summit, the ambitious IMEC Project was launched, which will connect India to Europe via the Middle East. India signed an updated agreement for the Chabahar Port Project with Iran this year, and India maintains close ties with both Israel and Iran.
PM Modi has also outmanoeuvred Pakistan in the Middle East. Now, no country in the region ever mentions the ‘Kashmir issue’, not even during their meetings with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. The UAE’s famous EMAAR group is investing 500 crore in Jammu & Kashmir, which will provide jobs to 7,500 Kashmiri youths.
The joint statement released by India and Kuwait does not mention the issue of ‘Palestine’. This is also a reflection of changing times. India’s policy towards Palestine has been long-standing and consistent. India supports a negotiated two-state solution, towards the establishment of a sovereign, independent, and viable State of Palestine within secure and recognised borders, living side by side in peace with Israel. India has also strongly condemned the terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the loss of civilian lives in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. India calls for a solution through dialogue and diplomacy.
The GCC, the Middle East, is an integral part of India’s ‘extended neighbourhood’. PM Modi has taken historical linkages forward by developing them into strong relationships of energy, expatriates, and the economy.
India is dependent on the six Gulf Cooperation Council states for a large share of its energy requirements. In 2023, India imported crude from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar. The imports from the Middle East have declined by about 28 per cent to 1.97 million barrels per day due to more purchases from Russia.
Indian nationals make up a 7.6 million strong expat community in the Gulf. The safety and security of Indian nationals are a top priority for the Modi government. PM Modi also acknowledged the contribution that these expats make to the Indian economy by sending money back home in the form of remittances, and India tops the list with $129 billion in 2024. It also becomes the responsibility of the Indian government to keep raising the issue of the welfare of expats with the host governments and also to evacuate them in times of crisis, as India did from Yemen, Sudan, and Iraq in the past.
About 89 per cent of FDI from GCC countries was received in the past decade alone. If we go by data from DPIIT, between April 2000 and September 2013, FDI equity inflow to India was $3,046.11 million, and between September 2013 and September 2024, FDI investment was $24,541.14 million.
The UAE was the first Gulf country PM Narendra Modi visited in August 2015, marking the first visit by any Indian PM in 34 years.
Today, gulf countries look at India as a rising economic power, a key market, and a geopolitical player. India is also a ‘net security’ provider in the Indian Ocean.
India is today known in the Gulf for its IT industry, digital public infrastructure, real estate, defence production, manpower, pharmaceutical industry, education, traditional medicine, space, agriculture, and electronics. Today, the buyer-seller relationship has been transformed into partnerships where Gulf countries take care of India’s energy security, and India takes care of Gulf countries’ food security.
The UAE is investing in India to set up food parks to enable the availability of high-quality products suitable to the UAE, using Indian farmers’ products, to be sold in the UAE. During PM Modi’s visit to Kuwait, the PM invited the Kuwaiti Investment Authority to India to look for opportunities to invest in food parks. India is also contributing to the Gulf’s healthcare sector through its skilled healthcare professionals. A significant number of Indian doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers are employed across the Gulf. India’s medical tourism attracts many patients from Gulf countries. IIT Delhi has opened its campus in Abu Dhabi; this collaboration will foster joint research, academic programmes, and student and faculty exchange.
Gulf countries look at India as an investment destination. In October 2023, the UAE declared its intention to spend US $75 billion in India, while Saudi Arabia established a US $100 billion investment objective. The largest sovereign wealth fund in the UAE, ADIA, has been given the green signal to operate through the tax-neutral finance hub of Gift City in Gujarat. The Kuwait Investment Authority has already invested $10 billion in India.
Middle Eastern countries are now shifting their focus from traditional sectors like oil and gas to high-growth, knowledge-driven industries. India and the UAE signed the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2022, which aims to boost trade to USD 100 billion in five years.
India and GCC nations are currently negotiating a free trade agreement. India is also making Gulf countries members of the International Solar Alliance to promote solar energy as a sustainable solution for energy access and climate change. Kuwait has been added to the list.
