New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday expressed “deep appreciation” for Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar, for facilitating the release and return of eight Indian Navy veterans, languishing in jail in Qatar since August 2022.
During his visit to Qatar, Modi also invited the Amir to visit India, Foreign Secretary of India Vinay M. Kwatra said in a special briefing Thursday. Modi, who planned to visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 13 and 14 February, decided to include Qatar in his trip on 12 February following the return of eight Navy veterans last Monday.
“The Prime Minister thanked His Highness the Amir for his support for the welfare of the Indian community and in this regard expressed his deep appreciation to His Highness the Emir for the release of eight Indian nationals of Al Dahra company,” said Kwatra.
Later, Modi, in a statement on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), said the visit has added “new vigour” to ties between Doha and New Delhi.
“My visit to Qatar has added new vigour to the India-Qatar friendship. India looks forward to scaling up cooperation in key sectors relating to trade, investment, technology and culture. I thank the Government and people of Qatar for their hospitality,” Modi wrote on X.
Qatar detained seven officers and one sailor employed with Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services, a company owned by an Omani national, in August 2022. Qatar had also detained the Omani national but later released him.
While Qatar did not make the charges behind the arrest public, ThePrint had reported earlier that authorities accused the eight of spying on a secretive Qatari programme to obtain high-tech Italian submarines.
In October 2023, Qatar handed the eight veterans a death sentence but later reduced it in December 2023 before their release earlier this week.
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Wide range of discussions
Modi received a ceremonial welcome at the palace of the Amir of Qatar and a ceremonial guard of honour. The two then discussed expanding areas of bilateral cooperation between India and Qatar, including “trade partnership, investment cooperation, energy partnership, issues engaged in regional security, cultural affinity, and people-to-people ties”, said Kwatra. However, they did not sign any new agreements.
“They spoke about the need for strategic investments and strategic partnership in the field of energy and technology to proceed beyond the buyer-seller relationship,” added Kwatra.
“The visit has set the stage for and laid the basis for taking the India-Qatar relationship to a much higher level across the whole domain of cooperation and also laid the foundation to explore partnerships in some of the new areas… space, technology, and innovation,” he said.
The discussions, Kwatra added, focused on expanding the technology partnership between the two countries, not just in the domain of financial technology but the “technology innovation ecosystem combined with skilled manpower” and applying the same to different sectors.
“India and Qatar have a strong energy security, energy trade partnership, but there are several aspects of energy partnership where India and Qatar could have a strategic view,” added Kwatra.
“The idea was to view it (India-Qatar energy partnership) from a comprehensive frame of reference rather than from a very important but restricted frame of reference of pure energy trade,” he said.
Modi also met with the Amir’s father, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in Doha and congratulated him on his “visionary leadership” that paved the way for Qatar’s development.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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Important for India to maintain the many productive relationships it has in the region. Not follow America’s example of tilting completely to one side.