Prime Minister Modi personally welcomed Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani at the airport on his two-day state visit to India. Why are India-Qatar relations important? What does the visit of the Qatari Emir mean for India? A news collection on this.
The state relations between the smallest Arab country, Qatar, and India began in the 70s. In January 1973, the Qatari government appointed the first charge d’affaires for its embassy in India. The following year, the Qatari government announced its first ambassador to India.
In 1940, Qatar discovered oil reserves in its country’s city of Dukhan. Twenty years later, it discovered another oil reserve. Since then, Qatar’s economy has grown rapidly. The role of workers brought from abroad has been very important in Qatar’s economic growth.
In 1990, the number of Indians living in Qatar was about 5 million. This is one-third of the total population of Qatar. Today, about 8.4 lakh Indians live in Qatar. Indians work in various industries including medicine, engineering, education, finance, banking, business and media. Most of the Indians living in Qatar are workers. In addition, about 15,000 Indian companies, both small and large, are operating in Qatar. The total investment of these companies is 450 million US dollars.
Till a decade ago, India-Qatar relations were at a standstill. In June 2016, Prime Minister Modi paid his first official visit to Qatar.
Since then, trade between Qatar and India has also increased. Qatar imports grains, machinery and electrical goods from India. India buys oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar.
This is Prime Minister Modi’s second visit to Qatar since the release of eight former Indian Navy personnel from Qatari jails in February.
Apart from this, Prime Minister Modi has also met and held talks with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2019 and the climate conference in Dubai in December 2023.
The opening of direct shipping lanes connecting Indian ports with Qatar has facilitated trade between the two countries. Trade and energy relations between India and Qatar are increasing.
Qatar produces 77 million tonnes of gas annually. It plans to increase this to 12.6 million tonnes by 2027. Through this, Qatar is working to strengthen its hold in Asia and Europe. The US is keen to establish a foothold in gas exports to Asia and Europe.
In this context, India is very important to Qatar. Qatar is the largest LNG supplier to India. More than 48 percent of India’s global LNG imports come from Qatar.
India is Qatar’s third largest gas customer after China and Japan. In terms of imports, India is third after China and the United States.
India is the third largest energy consumer in the world. India has set a target of net zero carbon emissions by 2070. India needs natural gas to achieve this.
India is taking steps to increase the share of India’s natural gas usage from 6.3 percent to 15 percent by 2030. Natural gas is considered cleaner than diesel and petrol. It is cheaper than crude oil.
India is dependent on imports of crude oil and natural gas. It imports approximately 85 percent of its crude oil. Whereas, natural gas is considered more important and suitable for replacing the country’s energy needs.
In this context, India and Qatar have signed a gas import deal worth 6.5 lakh crore Indian rupees for the next 20 years.
This means that this is an agreement to buy liquefied natural gas from Qatar until 2048.
India’s largest LNG importer, Petronet LNG Limited (PLL), has signed this agreement with Qatar’s state-owned company ‘Qatar Energy’.
Under this agreement, Qatar will export 7.5 million tonnes of gas to India every year. The gas will be used for power generation, fertilizer production, and conversion into CNG.
Already, India has imported about 20 million tonnes of LNG in 2022-23. About 54 percent of this, or about 11 million tonnes, was imported from Qatar.
In the same financial year, India imported a total of about Rs 1.3 lakh crore worth of gas from Qatar. Of this, LNG imports amounted to about Rs 69,200 crore. This is 49.5 percent of the total imports.
In this context, the visit of the Emir of Qatar to India is seen as very significant.
India and Qatar have deep-rooted historical ties of friendship, trust and mutual respect.
Relations between the two countries continue to grow in strength in the areas of trade, investment, energy, technology, culture and security.
