India and Gulf region

In News 

Recently ,Government suspended its national spokesperson Nupur Sharma and expelled its Delhi spokesperson Naveen Kumar Jindal, following comments they had made about Islam and the Prophet. 

• The move came after three countries in the Gulf region had summoned the Indian ambassadors to their nations to register their protest, and demanded a public apology from India.

Why is the region important for India?

• India has enjoyed centuries of good relations with countries like Iran, while smaller gas-rich nation Qatar is one of India’s closest allies in the region. 
  • India shares good relations with most of the countries in the Gulf.
• The two most important reasons for the relationship are oil and gas, and trade.
• Two additional reasons are the huge number of Indians who work in the Gulf countries, and the remittance they send back home.

Trading Partners 

• According to India’s embassy in Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which includes UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait, “has emerged as a major trading partner of India” and has “vast potential as India’s investment partner for the future. 
  • The GCC’s substantial oil and gas reserves are of utmost importance for India’s energy needs”.

• UAE: The UAE was India’s third largest trading partner in 2021-2022, and second largest for both exports ($28 billion) and imports ($45 billion) when these are counted individually.
•  Saudi Arabia: At a total volume of $42.9 billion in 2021-22, Saudi Arabia was India’s fourth largest trading partner. While exports were low at $8.76 billion (2.07% of India’s total exports), imports from Saudi Arabia were the fourth largest at $34.1 billion (7%), up 50% from the previous year. 
• Iraq: It was India’s fifth largest trading partner in 2021-22 at $34.3 billion.
• Qatar: The total trade was $15 billion, accounting for just 1.4% of India’s total trade, but the country is India’s most important supplier of natural gas.

Oil Imports 

• According to an analysis by the Observer Research Foundation in April, more than 84% of India’s petroleum demand, which included crude oil and petroleum products, was met with imports. 
  • The 239 million tonnes of oil petroleum imports were worth $77 billion, and accounted for nearly one-fifth of the country’s total imports last year.

Sources of Remittances 

• According to Ministry of External Affairs data, more than 13.46 million Indian citizens work abroad.
• The UAE (3.42 million), Saudi Arabia (2.6 million) and Kuwait (1.03 million) together account for over half of all NRIs.
• In terms of remittances from abroad, India was the largest recipient in 2020 at $83.15 billion, according to World Bank data. 

Issues/Concerns  

• The strong and widespread targeting of India in the Islamic world over the past few days arose from a specific theological consideration. 
• From time to time, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has criticised the Indian state’s alleged discrimination of its Muslim minorities. 
• There is an assertion of religiosity, there is also a lack of curiosity about other faiths. 
  • This seems to cut across all segments of society and has led to a lack of knowledge of other religions, leading to misperceptions.

Government Efforts 

• India’s relations with some significant Muslim countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have strengthened since Prime Minister Narendra Modi assumed office in May 2014.
  • Today, India has the best-ever relations with the Gulf countries in its history.
• There have been similar reciprocal visits by leaders from these countries during these eight years.

Conclusion and  Way Forward 

• There is a mutuality of interests between the Arab states and India, and hence when the temperature cools, the flow of relations will go on. 

India must take the obvious lessons from this entire episode, beginning with greater sensitivity to all faiths both for social harmony and promotions of India’s external interests.