Second leg of 5-nation tour: Modi holds talks with Qatar’s Emir, invites businesses to invest in India

With an intent to give a push to India-Qatar ties, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani on Sunday held detailed talks here on a wide range of issues.

At the outset, Modi personally extended greetings to the Emir, who celebrated his 36th birthday two days back. The Prime Minister had called him on that day to convey the greetings over phone.

Before the talks, Modi was given a ceremonial reception at the Emiri Diwan, the seat of power of Qatar’s ruler.

“The full splendour of an Arab welcome as PM @narendramodi receives ceremonial honours at Emiri Diwan in Doha,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photo.

Cooperation in energy is expected to be high on the agenda of the talks that were to cover various aspects of the relationship.

Qatar is an important trading partner for India in the Gulf region with bilateral trade in 2014-15 standing at USD 15.67 billion.

Qatar is also one of India’s key sources of crude oil.

This Arab country has a large population of Indians who number over 6.3 lakh.

While landing here yesterday, Modi had said India attaches great priority to strong ties with Qatar and that his visit seeks to expand the bilateral ties further.

The Prime Minister has been focusing on improving ties with the Gulf region which is crucial for India’s energy security. He has already visited United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

His trip marks a Prime Ministerial visit after eight years. The then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Doha in 2008.

The Emir of Qatar had visited India in March 2015.  Previously, the then Emir of Qatar had visited India in 1999, 2005 and 2012.

Modi invites Qatari businessmen to invest in India

Describing India as a “land of opportunity”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today invited Qatar’s business leaders to take advantage of it by investing in the country and promised to address “bottlenecks” identified by them.

“India is a land of opportunity. I have come to personally invite you to take advantage of this opportunity,” Modi said in a roundtable meeting with Qatari business leaders, his first engagement on the second day of his visit to the oil-rich Gulf nation.

The Prime Minister identified agro processing, railways and solar energy as very promising areas for Qatari investment.

“All of you recognise the potential of India. I will address the bottlenecks you have identified,” Modi said.

He described 800 million youth in India as the country’s biggest strength.

“India’s 800 million youth are its biggest strength.  Infrastructure expansion & upgradation & manufacturing are my other priorities,” Modi said.

He added that projects like smart cities, metros and urban waste management are geared towards upgrading quality of life of people.

The Prime Minister also praised the role of Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani in promoting India-Qatar business ties.

Earlier, Qatar’s Minister of Trade & Economy Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani welcomed Modi and sought more intensive economic engagement with India.

The size of annual bilateral trade between India and Qatar is around USD 10 billion and both the countries would like to expand it significantly. Qatar has a major sovereign wealth fund and India is eyeing to attract investment from it.

Modi is on a five-nation visit and has landed in Qatar yesterday from Afghanistan.

Modi will also visit Switzerland, the US and Mexico as part of the tour.