New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Kuwait for a two-day visit, starting 21 December. This will be the first trip by an Indian prime minister to the West Asian country since 1981.
India has historically been one of Kuwait’s largest trading partners, with commercial ties touching $10.47 billion during FY 2023-24, according to the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry. India’s exports grew 34 percent between 2022-23 and 2023-24 from $1.56 billion to $2.1 billion.
Kuwait remains an important source of oil for India, being the ninth largest supplier in 2023-24, meeting around 3 percent of the country’s energy needs.
The Indian community constitutes one of the largest expatriate communities in Kuwait, a country with a population of close to five million people. There are roughly one million Indians living in Kuwait, which make up 21 percent of its total population and around 30 percent of its total workforce. A large number of Indians work in Kuwait’s healthcare sector, including at least 1,000 Indian doctors, 500 dentists and around 24,000 nurses.
On 1 December, Kuwait hosted the 45th session of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit, where the leaders of the regional forum—UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait—condemned Israel’s aggression against Lebanon and demanded a halt of the conflict in Gaza.
The last Indian Prime Minister to visit Kuwait was Indira Gandhi in 1981. The last Indian Head of State or Government to visit the country was Vice President Hamid Ansari in 2009.
However, at the ministerial level, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar travelled there on 18 August this year, when he called on the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, and Prime Minister Ahmed Abdullah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. He also held meetings with his counterpart Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya.
Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh visited the country in June 2024 after a fire at a housing facility in the Mangaf area in Kuwait led to the deaths of at least 46 Indian workers.
Al-Yahya visited India earlier this month on 3 December and 4 December, where the two countries agreed to establish a Joint Commission for Cooperation (JCC) at the level of foreign ministers.
Prime Minister Modi met with the Crown Prince of Kuwait earlier this year in September on the margins of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York City, which was the first meeting between the two.
Modi’s first overseas visit this year was also to the West Asian region, with visits to UAE and Qatar in February 2024.
The prime minister’s visit comes amid Indian diplomacy stepping up in the region in recent months, with Jaishankar visiting Qatar and Bahrain last week, UAE last month, Saudi Arabia in September and Kuwait in August.
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