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Context:

• The Vice President, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu highlighted the strength of India-Qatar ties and called for building an enabling environment and forging more collaborations for mutual benefit.

 

More on the news:

• Addressing the Qatari businesspersons during the India-Qatar Business Forum in Doha and suggesting that the two countries have a special relationship that evolved over centuries, he called for further enriching the robust partnership and diversifying the trade basket, which is currently dominated by energy products.
• He expressed happiness that India-Qatar has touched a new milestone of US$ 15 billion in 2021-22 and noted that there has been a steady increase in the number of registered Indian businesses in Qatar which has crossed 15,000.
• He launched the “India-Qatar Start Up bridge” that aims to link the start-up ecosystems of the two countries.
• Vice President, noting that the year 2023 marks 50 years of the establishment of full diplomatic relations between India and Qatar, suggested that the two Parliaments also plan an event to mark this milestone.
• He also called for more collaboration between India and Qatar at multilateral forums like the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), Asian Parliamentary Assembly, and others.

 

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Background:

• India-Qatar cooperation in diverse sectors has been steadily growing in an excellent framework provided by historically close ties and regular and substantive engagement, including at the highest levels of the two Governments.
• The large, diverse, accomplished and highly regarded Indian community is making an important contribution to Qatar's progress and in nurturing the bonds of deep-rooted friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries.

 

Political Relations

• There has been regular exchange of high-level bilateral visits. The Amir of Qatar H.H. Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani had paid a State Visit to India in 2015.

 

Covid cooperation

• Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) sent Covid medical relief material to India for combating second wave of Covid-19 by special Amiri Air force plane.
• Indian community in Qatar too contributed in a big way in sending oxygen related material to India.

 

Defence

• India offers training slots in its defence institutions to a number of partner countries, including Qatar.
• India regularly participates in the biennial Doha International Maritime Defence Exhibition and Conference (DIMDEX) in Qatar.
• Indian Naval and Coast Guard ships regularly visit Qatar as part of bilateral cooperation and interaction.

 

Commercial & Investment Relations

• India's bilateral trade with Qatar in 2020-21 was US$ 9.21 billion.
• India’s export to Qatar during 2020-21 was US$ 1.28 billion and India’s import from Qatar was US$ 7.93 billion.
• Qatar’s key exports to India include LNG, LPG, chemicals and petrochemicals, plastics, and aluminium articles, while India’s key exports to Qatar include cereals, copper articles, iron and steel articles, vegetables, fruits, spices, and processed food products, electrical and other machinery, plastic products, construction material, textiles & garments, chemicals, precious stones and rubber.
• India is among the top three largest export destinations for Qatar (Japan and South Korea being the other two) and is also among the top three sources of Qatar’s imports, along with China and Japan.
• Qatar is the largest supplier of LNG to India, accounting for over 50% of India's global LNG imports.
• Besides LNG, India also imports ethylene, propylene, ammonia, urea and polyethylene from Qatar. Therefore, the balance of trade continues to be heavily in Qatar’s favour. However, there has been a substantial growth in India’s exports to Qatar in the last few years.

 

Cultural Relations

• There are regular cultural exchanges between the two sides, under the provisions of the Agreement on Cultural Cooperation signed between the two sides in 2012. Qataris admire India's cultural diversity.
• The year 2019 was celebrated as India-Qatar Year of Culture, as envisaged in the Joint Statement issued during the visit of PM Modi to Qatar.

 

Indian Community

• There are over 700,000 Indian nationals residing in Qatar.
• They comprise the largest expatriate community in Qatar and are engaged in a wide spectrum of professions including medicine; engineering; education, finance; banking; business; and media apart from a large number of blue-collared workers.
• The Indian Community Benevolent Forum (ICBF), functioning under the aegis of Embassy of India, Doha - ICBF was awarded Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in January, 2011.

 

https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1831589