Why can’t India anger the Gulf countries?
India-Gulf Country Relations
The relations connecting India with the Gulf countries have been based not only on trade and commerce but also on history and culture. In Gulf countries, lakhs of Indians live and work and this enables India to take a major chunk of foreign exchange here. Especially, after the arrival of the Modi government, when the propaganda of being ‘against Islam’ was spread against India by Pakistan, at that time India’s relations with the Gulf countries became historic. India has now become the second largest trading partner of the United Arab Emirates and a grand temple is under construction in Saudi Arabia. At the same time, India is heavily dependent on this sector for its oil needs.
How many Indian citizens in which country?
Indians make up more than a third of the population of the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, more than 89 lakh Indian citizens live and work in the Gulf countries. 34 lakh 25 thousand 144 in UAE, 25 lakh 94 thousand 947 in Saudi Arabia, 10 lakh 29 thousand 861 Indians in Kuwait, 7 lakh 81 thousand 141 in Oman, 7 lakh 46 thousand 550 in Qatar, 3 lakh 26 thousand 658 in Bahrain, 20 thousand 760 Indians live in Jordan, 18 thousand 07 in Iraq, 8 thousand 537 Indians live in Lebanon. At the same time, many major retail stores and restaurants in Gulf countries are owned by Indians. Hence, the call to boycott Indian products could affect businesses owned by Indians.
India’s trade with Gulf countries
The United Arab Emirates is the third largest trading partner of India. At the same time, the Gulf countries are also heavily dependent on India. After the United States, the United Arab Emirates is India’s second largest expert base and third largest trading partner. India and UAE’s bilateral trade stood at $72.9 billion in 2021-22, in which India sold goods worth $28.4 billion to the UAE. At the same time, a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement has also been signed between India and the UAE in February, under which the total trade of both the countries has been targeted to reach 100 billion dollars by the year 2026.
gulf countries dependent on india for food grains
The Gulf country is particularly dependent on India for food and grain imports. India exports more than 85% of their food and 93% of their food grains to the Gulf countries. Along with this, India mainly exports rice, buffalo meat, spices, marine products, fruits, vegetables and sugar to the Gulf countries. The aviation industry of the Gulf countries* AAE heavily depends on Indian passengers. Most of the passengers in local airlines like Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways are Indians. Along with this, half of India’s remittance (non commercial transfer of money) also comes from five Gulf countries. Indian people working in these countries send maximum money to India, with the largest share coming to Kerala and then to Delhi. At the same time, a lot of money is transferred from Gulf countries in UP and Bihar also.
oil imports from gulf countries
India imports large quantities of crude oil from Gulf countries not only to meet its energy needs but also for strategic and security reasons. India’s Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri told Parliament in March that the country consumes five million barrels of oil per day, of which 60 percent comes from the Gulf. Therefore, how strongly India and Gulf countries are connected with each other, it can be easily understood and by such controversial remarks, these leaders only benefit, but the country remains at a loss. Especially during the last eight years, the way Prime Minister Modi has strengthened the relationship with the Gulf countries, it has definitely got a big setback from Nupur Sharma’s statement.
