KUWAIT: The year 2012 was a remarkable one for bilateral relations between India and Kuwait. In fact, the exchange visits of high-ranking government officials from both sides added to the remarkable year-end. Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Satish Chand Mehta, India's Ambassador to Kuwait, said there has been a significant improvement and growth in the bilateral relations between the two counties. "We have very good political, economic and cultural relations and an excellent understanding on various issues between the two governments. We expect this to continue in the coming years," the envoy told local and some Indian reporters attending the press briefing held at the embassy premises. "Bilateral trade in 2010-11 stood at $12 billion, and in 2011-12 it was $17 billion. There is a significant growth in bilateral trade.
We are happy and contented about it because this is how it should be." The Indian ambassador noted that most of the achievements in the year 2012 were actually an outcome of an active engagement between the two countries, especially through a number of high-level visits. "The year 2012 started with the visit of a member of parliament from India, then a visit by Indian Minister for Overseas Affairs, an official from the Ministry of Finance, investment delegations, followed by a visit of a foreign affairs official for the some consultations and also by officials who attended the Asian Cooperation Dialogue. On the Kuwaiti side, we received visitors from Kuwait's Ministry of Commerce, Kuwaiti delegations from the Ministry of Health for the MOU signing and the visit of undersecretary for social affairs and labor," the ambassador narrated. The envoy also mentioned the visit of Kuwait Journalists Association's delegation together with the editor and chiefs of various local newspapers. "It was a very successful visit and we were very satisfied about the positive feedback we received from the delegation," he said. Culturally, Mehta said, Kuwait and India share a common strength in promoting their culture and values. "There is so much that India and Kuwait share when it comes to the cultural domain. A number of cultural delegations from India visited Kuwait in 2012. Some were at the government's initiative but many were part of the private initiative of the Indian community," he added. He also mentioned that many of the cultural presentations were organized in cooperation with the National Council for Culture Arts and Letters in Kuwait, including a cultural affairs group which cooperated in the Asian Summit.
On the Kuwaiti side, according to Mehta, the Kuwaiti cultural group performed in India way back in January 2012. He also mentioned a number of tourism promotion exercises, aimed at increasing the number of Kuwaiti tourists visiting India. Ambassador Mehta also revealed that the 60- day moratorium on visits by any foreigners who visited India has been completely lifted. "Overall the relationship has been very good and is progressing. We are confident that the new year will see more interaction between our two countries," he said. "On the commercial side, we hope that trade will further increase, and so will investments. In the past, India has been the number one trade partner of Kuwait, and we want to regain that position as Indian manufacturers have now started to produce more and more products and an ever increasing range of high quality competitive prices and services," he pointed out. Mehta stressed that as countries, both Kuwait and India are working closely to promote good ties and cooperation. "To continue to enhance the bilateral relations, we were supposed to have a high level meeting in December 2012 here in Kuwait, but it was postponed due to elections here.
We will finalize the new date now as elections are over. In the hydrocarbon sector, we already have very good cooperation. In fact, we are looking forward to expand our cooperation in this regard and add new dimensions to it," he stated. Kuwait has sovereign funds and has millions of surpluses and because of that India wants to attract Kuwaiti investments. According to Ambassador Mehta, India now is the third largest economy and endeavors to secure the second position in the next 10-13 years. "Our growth has been steady in the last 20 years and we have averaged at around seven percent, and hope to do even better. We call upon Kuwait to participate in the growing Indian economy and benefit from it. That is our effort and we are positive about the responsiveness of the Kuwaiti side," he said. Indian population in Kuwait stood at 640,000 as of February this year, of which 244,000 are working in the domestic labor sector.
© Kuwait Times 2012
