New Delhi: Energy, investments, defence, economic agreements and the strong presence of the Indian community in Kuwait are all expected to figure on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s agenda during his two-day visit to the Gulf country over the weekend.
Modi’s visit to Kuwait will end the 2024 diplomatic calendar with a visit to a country in the region where he started the year — West Asia.
During a special media briefing Friday, Secretary (Consular and Diaspora) Arun Kumar Chatterjee said, “Regarding the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), yes, the discussions are going on. The MoU on defence cooperation also discussions are going on. We are expecting to finalise a few bilateral documents during this visit. But the discussions are still going on.” Chatterjee added that he hoped that the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under negotiations between India and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would be “concluded” since Kuwait is the regional bloc’s chair.
Kuwait is the only country in the GCC left for Modi to visit, highlighting the focus he has given to the region since assuming power in 2014. It also indicates Kuwait’s interests, given the deepening partnership between India and its neighbours.
However, the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the country in 43 years comes after ties between New Delhi and Kuwait City faced challenges, especially following India’s position during the 1991 Gulf War and relations with Saddam Hussein and Iraq.
“India has had a testy relationship with Kuwait. The country has an old-school pan-Islamic view of the world. They also have a propensity for raising issues surrounding religion much louder than other countries in the region,” Kabir Taneja, the deputy director and fellow (Middle East) with the strategic studies programme of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), said to ThePrint.
Taneja added: “The window for improving ties between the two countries opened when New Delhi sent vaccines to Kuwait during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they sent oxygen when India needed it.”
The two countries have had historic ties, with the Indian Rupee remaining a legal tender in the country up to 1961. The Indian community makes up 21 percent of the total population living in the country, with roughly one million Indians living in the Gulf country and making up around 30 percent of its total workforce.
During COVID-19, India, along with 200,000 vaccines, sent medical teams to Kuwait to augment its healthcare infrastructure. Kuwait sent 425 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen and nearly 12,500 oxygen cylinders, during the second wave of the pandemic in India.
The Gulf country is India’s sixth largest supplier of crude oil, helping New Delhi meet three percent of its total energy needs. However, Modi’s visit could help expand the partnership, especially as Kuwait is looking for partners to invest in.
“Modi’s general push towards West Asia made an eventual visit to Kuwait inevitable, perhaps also laying the ground for a strategic relationship, which looks beyond oil, as seen in other newly elevated partnerships with Arab monarchies. But Kuwait, specifically, also represents an ability to look past historical friction points, such as India’s strong support for the erstwhile Baathist regime in Iraq under Saddam Hussein,” explained Bashir Ali Abbas, research associate at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, to ThePrint.
Modi is scheduled to meet Emir of Kuwait Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Crown Prince Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabha, and Prime Minister Ahmed Al-Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah during his Kuwait visit. Moreover, he will address Kuwait’s Indian community and attend the 26th Arabian Gulf Cup’s first game.
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Modi’s personal stake in West Asia
Since coming into office in 2014, Modi has travelled heavily across West Asia and built close relationships with the governments in the region. The Indian Prime Minister has visited Saudi Arabia twice, Qatar twice, the United Arab Emirates seven times, Bahrain once, Iran once, Israel once, and Palestine once.
“What Modi does really well is building personal relationships. It was a pivotal moment when the Indian Prime Minister went to Ramallah in 2018. It was a strong signal by the Prime Minister, who is perceived as a Hindu nationalist. He has also been willing to have a risk-averse policy in the region,” explained Taneja.
An example of the risk-averse approach to the region included hosting Mohammad Bin Salman in February 2019, mere months after the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi Arabian mission in Türkiye at a time the rest of the world was unwilling to do the same.
Since August, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has made several visits to the region, visiting Kuwait in August, Saudi Arabia in September, UAE in November, and Qatar and Bahrain at the start of this month.
“India is positioning itself as a pole in the world. The countries in West Asia are slowly thinking beyond the American security umbrella, which has defined its foreign policy over the last 50 years. India has since become an important partner for them,” said Taneja.
He added: “The oil-rich countries in West Asia need a market like India over the next 30 years as they look to transition away from hydrocarbons. India wants to do business at the end of the day and be a part of the West Asian story now.”
Diversification of Gulf economies
According to Nadeem Ahmed Moonakal, a research scholar at Rasanah: International Institute for Iranian Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the “ongoing reforms” in these countries have helped create opportunities for the Gulf’s “converging interests” with India, particularly in sectors such as energy, technology and defence.
“Jaishankar’s visit to Riyadh in September for the first India-GCC Joint Ministerial Meeting for Strategic Dialogue marked a significant step forward in strengthening India’s relations with the Gulf. As part of their efforts to diversify partnerships and alliances in response to regional and global geopolitical shifts, India is increasingly central to the strategic calculations of these Gulf nations,” said Moonakal to ThePrint.
Trade between the GCC and India stood at roughly $160 billion last year — 15 percent of New Delhi’s total trade. India, said Taneja, stands to gain through the expansion of ties with the smaller economies in the region, besides the United Arab Emirates-centric focus seen so far.
“India’s focus on renewable and clean energy sources aligns with the Gulf countries’ diversification goals and has paved the way for mutually beneficial partnerships. This shared focus on sustainable energy further enhances India’s role as a key partner in the region’s economic transformation,” explained Moonakal.
However, the visit to Kuwait would see the two countries continuing to focus on the hydrocarbons sector. According to Moonakal, crude oil will “remain a fulcrum” of India-Kuwait relations in the short term.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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