India Qatar Bilateral Relations

India has a long history of friendly relations with Qatar marked by commercial ties and people to people contacts. The relationship today is rich, close and multi-dimensional. The large Indian community acts as a catalyst for enhanced ties across the spectrum of bilateral relations. There is a growing synergy in the hydrocarbon and other sectors. More recently, a number of steps have been taken to further strengthen and expand bilateral relations. These include exchanges of high level visits, cooperation in multilateral institutions, political consultations etc. The Emir, HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani visited India in April 1999 and in May 2005. The Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al Thani visited India in April 2006. HE Mr. Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah, Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry visited India in November 2006  and in January 2009. Other important visits from Qatar include these of the Chief of Staff of Qatar Armed Forces in August 2006 and that of Minister of Civil Services and Housing in November 2007. Hon’ble Prime Minister visited Doha on November 9-10, 2008, marking the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister.  Earlier, the then Deputy Prime Minister Sh L.K.Advani had visited Qatar in January, 2003. Other important visits during the last six years are as under:

Visits from India (2005 - 2011)

SL. No.	Name of the Dignitary	Period of visit
1	HE Mr. E. Ahamed, Minister of State for External Affairs	14 - 16/06/05, 18 - 19/03/06, 23 - 24/05/06, 29/10 - 1/11/06, 13 - 15/12/06, 25 - 26/4/07, 28-29/1/08, 4-5/5/08, 23-24/9/08, 29-30/12/08, 15-16/3/09,30/3/09
2	HE Mr. Manishankar Iyer, Minister of Petroleum	November 2005
3	HE Mr. Vayalar Ravi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs	19 - 22/3/06
4	Shri Murli Deora, Minister of Commerce	22 - 24/4/06
5	Sh. Charanjit Singh Atwal, Dy. Speaker, Lok Sabha	28/10/06 - 1/11/06
6	HE Mr. Vayalar Ravi, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs	10 - 13/4/07
7	HE Mr. Murli Deora, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas	28 - 30/10/07
8	HE Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India	09 - 10/11/08
9	Shri T.K.A. Nair, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister	13 - 15/11/09
10	HE Murli Deora, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas	16/12/09
11	HE Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New & Renewable Energy	12- 14/3/10

Visits to India (2005 - 2011)

SL. No.	Name of the Dignitary	Period of visit
1	HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani Emir of the State of Qatar	13 - 15 May 2005
2	HE Mr. Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud Minister of State for Foreign Affairs	19 - 21 June 2005
3	HH Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Misnad	6 - 9 February 2006
4	HE Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani PM & Minister for Foreign Affairs	18 - 19 April 2006
5	HE General Hamad Bin Ali Al Attiyah Chief of Staff	24 August 2006
6	HE Yousuf Hussain Kamal Minister of Finance	5 October 2006
7	HE Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Deputy Premier & Minister of Energy & Industry	23 - 24 November 2006
8	HE Dr. Sultan Bin Hassan Al Dhabit Al Doosari Minister of Civil Service & Housing	20 November 2007
9	Brig General Abdulla Jumaan Al Hamad Head of Foreign Cooperation	8 - 9 July 2008
10	HE Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of Energy & Industry	13 - 15 January 2009 and 20 - 22 March 2010
11	HE Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah Minister of State for International Cooperation	24 - 25 February 2009
12	HE Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah Minister of State for International Cooperation	8 -9 February 2010
13	HE Dr. Mohammed Al Sada Minister of State for Energy & Industry	27 -29 October 2010
14	HE Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Attiyah Minister of State for International Cooperation	13 - 14 February 2011

Highlights of Major Visits

(a) Visit of the Emir in 1999

HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar visited India in April 1999. A number of important Agreements were signed during the visit. These are: the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement; the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement; the MOU on Foreign Office Consultations; MOU on cooperation in the field of Youth and Sports; Agreement between the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry with the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry on the creation of a Joint Business Council; and an MOU on cooperation between the National Small Industries Corporation of India and the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This visit was a landmark event, which brought about a qualitative change in the bilateral relationship.

(b) Visit of the Emir in 2005

HH the Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani paid another official visit to India from 13-15 April 2005 leading a powerful delegation comprising of HE Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al Thani, First Deputy Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs, HE Mr. Mohamad Bin Ahmad Al Thani, Minister of Commerce and Trade, HE Mr. Yousef Hussain Kamaal, Minister of Finance, HE Sheikh Abdulrehman Bin Saud Al Thani, President of Diwan Emiri, among others. During the visit, he met President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Minister for petroleum & Natural Gas and Panchayati Raj, apart from Minister of State for Civil Aviation. An Air Services Agreement between India and Qatar was signed during the visit. It was decided to upgrade the Joint Committee between the two countries to the Ministerial level.

 

(c) Visit of Sheikha Mozah in 2006

Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Misned, the First Lady of the State of Qatar, paid an official visit to India from 6-11 February 2006. During the visit, HH Sheikha Mozah met the Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, Chairperson of UPA Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the HRM Shri Arjun Singh and the Chairperson of ICCR Dr. Karan Singh and had fruitful discussions on issues of common interest and identified various areas of bilateral cooperation, specially in areas of IT, Education, Health, Scientific Research and Training etc.

 

(d) Visit of Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister in January 2009

Qatar’s Deputy Prime Minister HE Abdullah bin Hamad al Attiyah, visited New Delhi on January 13-15, 2009. During his visit he called on the Prime Minister. The talks covered various aspects of bilateral relations and the follow up action required to expand levels of cooperation subsequent to the visit of the Prime Minister to Qatar. Mr. Attiyah also met with EAM, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and NSA. He also participated in PETROTECH 2009.

 

(e) Visit of Shri L.K. Advani, Dy Prime Minister in 2003

During his visit in January, 2003 DPM called on HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and reviewed bilateral ties and developments in the region. DPM also met the Foreign Minister HE Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani and Minister for Energy and Industry HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah for discussions on bilateral political, energy and commercial issues.

 

(f) Visit of Sh Vayalar Ravi, Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs in 2007

Shri Vayalar Ravi, Honourable Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, visited Doha from 10-13 April 2007 to discuss and finalise the Additional Labour Protocol to the Agreement on Organisation of Manpower Employment of 1985. He met the Qatari Minister of Civil Service Affairs and Housing HE Sultan Hassan bin Dhabit al Dossari and also the Qatari Minister of State for Energy and Industry HE Dr Mohamed Saleh al Sada.

 

(g) Visit of Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India in November 2008

The Prime Minister, accompanied by a high level delegation including Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs, Dy Chairman Planning Commission, MOS(EA) and NSA visited Qatar on November 9-10. During his visit, PM held wide ranging discussions with the Emir. The delegation level talks headed by the two PMs covered the entire gamut of bilateral engagement. Both sides decided to take appropriate steps to upgrade the relationship to a strategic level. It was agreed that existing mechanisms such as Ministerial Level Joint Committee and Foreign Office Consultations should be activated and progress in various spheres of bilateral cooperation be monitored at high level. Cooperation in the field of Energy, trade and investment, Defence and security, Civil Aviation, Human Resource Development was reviewed with a view to further strengthening the existing levels. Both countries concluded Agreement in the field of Defence Cooperation as well as an agreement on Cooperation in Security and Law Enforcement Matters. Both sides agreed to set up a high level monitoring mechanism, which would review, on a regular basis, progress on decisions taken up during the visit. This Committee is being co-Chaired by HE Khalid al Attiyah, Minister of State for International Cooperation and Principal Secretary to PM. The first meeting of this Committee was held in New Delhi in February 2009. The second meeting was held in Doha on November 14, 2009 and the third meeting in Delhi on January 3-4, 2011.During the second meeting of HLMM, both sides concluded a MOU on facilitating Qatari investments into India. The MOU provides for the setting up of a Joint Committee to oversee its implementation. Qatar is yet to nominate its representatives to the Joint Committee. The Joint Committee under the Agreement on Security and Law Enforcement has been constituted but is yet to meet. Another Joint Committee on Labour related issues met in Doha on January 17-18, 2011. Joint Working Groups have also been set up for cooperation in the field of HRD (yet to meet) and in the field of Fertilizers and Petrochemicals (met once in February 2010). The third meeting of HLMM agreed to constitute the pending Joint Committees and to hold the meetings in a time bound manner..

Defence Cooperation

Chief of Staff of Qatari Armed Forces visited India on 23 & 24 August 2006 and discussed matters relating to defence cooperation between the two countries. The Qatar Armed Forces have shown interest in making use of training facilities available in India for their defence personnel and a number of Qatari officers have attended the Defence Services Staff College Course at Wellington. Indian naval ships have periodically paid goodwill visits to Qatar. A Naval delegation visited Qatar from 16-21 March, 2008 led by Admiral Jagjit Singh Bedi, Flag Officer Commanding in Chief, Western Naval Command to participate in Doha International Maritime Exhibition and Conference – 2008. Two Indian Navy Ships Beas and Pralaya were also present during the event. A customized course was conducted in Kochi in July 2009 for Qatari Naval officers. The Joint Committee set up under the Agreement on Defence Cooperation met in Doha in February, 2010

Support for India's candidature for UNSC

During his visit to India in 2005, the Emir reaffirmed Qatar’s support for India’s candidature for permanent membership of the UNSC. Qatar had also assured us of its support for our candidature for the non-permanent seat of UNSC for 2011-12.

Commercial & Economic Relations

India’s bilateral trade with Qatar increased from US$ 1.2 billion in 2005 to US$ 3.7 billion in 2009. Indian exports to Qatar increased from US $ 380 million to US$ 900 million during this period. Major items of Indian exports are machinery and equipment, transport equipment, textiles, food products, ores and minerals etc. Qatar’s exports to India amounted to US$ 2.8 billion in 2008 as compared to US$ 896 million in 2005. India is the fourth largest export market for Qatar after Japan, South Korea and Singapore. In terms of Qatari import, India ranks at the tenth position. As per Indian statistics, India’s exports to Qatar for 2009-10 were $537 million while our imports from Qatar for the same period amounted to $4.6 billion.

India has signed an agreement to purchase 7.5 million tonnes of LNG every year from Qatar for a period of 25 years, the first shipment took place in 2004. The full supplies of 7.5 million ton have begun from January, 2010 In addition, 1.25 million tonnes was supplied as special cargos between July 2007 and September 2008. Negotiations have continued for about a year now for additional quantities (our demand now stands revised to 15 million tones) but pricing remains an unresolved issue. NTPC has been seeking investment from Qatar for its Kayankulam expansion project and has been talking to Qatar Petroleum International and Qatar Electricity and Water Corporation. A confidentiality agreement has been concluded following which NTPC has sent detailed data relating to the project for review by the Qatari side. We have also sought investment from Qatar in crude storage facility being developed by IOC. From our side, we have indicated interest in setting up a petrochemical and a fertilizer plant in Qatar but Qatar has indicated that these projects can only be considered after an embargo is lifted over further allocation of gas. This self-imposed embargo to preserve the North Field is likely to continue for another 2 years atleast. A large number of Indian companies such as L&T, Dodsal, Punj Lloyd, Voltas, Simplex, Wipro, Aptech, Satyam Mahendra, NIIT etc have set up offices in Qatar and have secured major contracts/ business. The Indian community is estimated to be in the range of 500,000. Indian professionals constitute an important component. There are eight Indian schools following the CBSE syllabus. The annual remittance from Qatar is estimated to be over US$ 1 billion. Air India, Indian, Jet Airways and Qatar Airways operate direct flights between India and Qatar. Qatar Airways has been continuously increasing its services to India and has 86 weekly flights to India now.

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