Mains Practice Questions

Approach

• Start your answer by describing gulf region in brief.
• Discuss the multidimensional significance of Gulf region for India.
• Conclude accordingly.

Introduction

• The Gulf region consist of countries that share the border with Persian Gulf. These are the names of the seven Gulf nations: Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Body

• Significance of Gulf region for India:
  • Potential trade and investment opportunity:
    • The Gulf countries offers tremendous potential for cooperation in trade, investment, energy, manpower etc. As India has traditional and friendly relation with all Gulf member states.
    • Further, Gulf countries have mutually beneficial complementarities with India in the field of investments which has already started from these countries both through FDI and FII.
  • Influence of Indian Diaspora:
    • This region hosts nearly 5.5 million Indians who are contributing immensely to the economic development of both India and the countries they reside and work in.
  • Energy security:
    • Nearly 40 % of India’s crude oil import is met from Gulf countries. Gulf region plays a crucial role in India’s energy security and pace of economic growth.
  • Potential market for Indian export:
    • The Gulf countries provide an excellent market potential for India’s manufactured goods and services, especially in project services exports.
  • Defense cooperation:
    • The traditional relations with Gulf are presently diversifying into security and defence cooperation, and India today has a strong and growing stake in Gulf stability.
    • This includes ‘strategic partnerships’ with Gulf countries on issues such as counter-terrorism, money laundering, cyber security, organised crime, human trafficking and anti-piracy.
    • All the Gulf states are members of the Indian Navy-conceived Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS).
    • Further, India’s most notable (but equally low-key) defence cooperation has been with Oman. India has also played an active role in enhancing the stability and security of the Gulf’s Sea lanes through its participation in anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia.

Conclusion

There is a need for adopting an integrated and cohesive approach, backed by institutional support, to develop ties in the diverse areas like — renewables, water conservation, food security, digital technology and skills development.