NEW DELHI - India has stepped up multi-faceted consultations with GCC states ahead of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit to be held in New Delhi in September under its presidency.

A 12th round of India-Oman Strategic Consultative Group meeting in Muscat “reviewed bilateral ties in different domains and identified new areas of cooperation,” the Ministry of External Affairs here said in a press release.

“The India-Oman Strategic Consultative Group is an important forum for both countries enabling regular review of bilateral relations. The discussions were focused on exploring avenues of cooperation in key sectors including energy, trade and investment, health, education and cultural exchanges,” the press release said.

The meeting was co-chaired by the Secretary in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Dr. Ausaf Sayeed and Oman’s Under-Secretary for Diplomatic Affairs, Sheikh Khalifa Alharthy.

Oman is a special invitee by the G20’s Indian presidency to the New Delhi Summit. India has invited nine countries as special invitees.

Simultaneously, as part of efforts to increase connectivity between India and the GCC, Bahrain’s Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Mohammed bin Thamer Al Kaabi, met India’s Minister for Civil Aviation, Jyotiraditya Scindia, in New Delhi.

Scindia said in a tweet on his official account after the meeting that the two ministers "explored new avenues of mutual cooperation to enhance connectivity in both the regions". Scindia thanked Bahrain for the cooperation with India during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Al Kaabi also met India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan.

India recently hosted a virtual summit attended by 125 countries “for articulating the voice of the Global South in international institutions and for reforming them for a balanced representation of the developing world,” according to India’s Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra.

Global South is normally identified with countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. Both Bahrain and Oman participated in the Voice of Global South virtual Summit.