{"id":37898,"date":"2023-10-27T04:01:21","date_gmt":"2023-10-26T22:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37898"},"modified":"2025-04-23T02:43:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T21:13:15","slug":"india-qatar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/india-qatar\/","title":{"rendered":"India-Qatar Bilateral Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>India \u2013 Qatar Bilateral Relation<\/li>\n<li>Challenges in India \u2013 Qatar Bilateral Relation<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: Qatar court sentences 8 Indian Navy veterans to death<\/li>\n<li>Who are these Indians, and what were they doing in Qatar?<\/li>\n<li>When were the men arrested by the Qatari authorities, and why?<\/li>\n<li>India\u2019s stance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Eight former personnel of the Indian Navy, who were detained in Doha in 2022, have been sentenced to death by a Qatari court.<\/li>\n<li>They were arrested by Qatari authorities on August 30, 2022 and have since been under solitary confinement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>India \u2013 Qatar Bilateral Relation<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>High-level visits\n<ul>\n<li>The two countries have had friendly relations for decades.<\/li>\n<li>Since PM Manmohan Singh\u2019s visit to Qatar in November 2008, the first by an Indian Prime Minister, the relationship has burgeoned.<\/li>\n<li>The Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, visited India in 2015, and PM Modi went to Qatar in 2016.<\/li>\n<li>The late Sushma Swaraj became the first Indian Foreign Minister to visit Qatar in 2018.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Bilateral trade\n<ul>\n<li>In 2021, <u>India was among the top four export destinations for Qatar; it is also among the top three sources of Qatar\u2019s imports<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>The bilateral trade is valued at $15 billion, which is mostly LNG and LPG exports from Qatar worth over $13 billion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Defence co-operation\n<ul>\n<li>Defence co-operation has been officially described as a \u201cpillar\u201d of Indian-Qatar ties.<\/li>\n<li>The India-Qatar Defence Cooperation Agreement, signed during PM Singh\u2019s November 2008 visit, was a significant turning point. The agreement was extended for another five years in 2018.<\/li>\n<li>Indian Naval and Coast Guard ships regularly visit Qatar. QENF delegations participated in two maritime exercises in India in 2021.<\/li>\n<li>Two editions of a joint naval exercise called Zair Al Bahr have been held.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Challenges in the relationship<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>BJP spokesperson\u2019s derogatory references to the Prophet on a TV show\n<ul>\n<li>The first big challenge to the relationship came in June 2022 over BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma\u2019s derogatory references to the Prophet.<\/li>\n<li>Qatar was the first country to object, and demand a \u201cpublic apology\u201d from India soon after the controversy erupted.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Jailing of the eight ex-Navy personnel\n<ul>\n<li>The development blindsided New Delhi in a country where 800,000 Indians live and work. Indians are the largest expatriate community in Qatar.<\/li>\n<li>Its 210-strong delegation at the Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas event in Indore last year was the second biggest, next only to the Mauritius delegation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The boil over the Israeli bombardment of Gaza\n<ul>\n<li>The news of the death penalty for the Indians has come at a time when the Middle East is on the boil over the Israeli bombardment of Gaza.<\/li>\n<li>Qatar, which is deeply sympathetic to the Palestinians, has mediated the release of two American hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza, and the country\u2019s diplomats are said to be working as a regional mediator in the crisis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>News Summary: Qatar court sentences 8 Indian Navy veterans to death<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The officers were jailed on charges that have not been made public.<\/li>\n<li>Responding to the development, the Ministry of External Affairs expressed shock over the verdict and said India will take up the matter with Qatari authorities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Who are these Indians and what were they doing in Qatar?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The eight former Navy personnel were working at <u>Al Dahra Global <\/u>Technologies and <u>Consultancy Services<\/u>, a defence services provider company.\n<ul>\n<li>Most of the arrested men had been working at Dahra for four to six years at the time of their arrests.<\/li>\n<li>Commander Purnendu Tiwari (retd), who was Managing Director of the company, received the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman in 2019 for his services in furthering the bilateral relationship between India and Qatar.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The company is owned by an Omani national, Khamis al-Ajmi, a retired squadron leader of the Royal Oman Air Force.\n<ul>\n<li>This man too, was arrested along with the eight Indians, but he was released in November 2022.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The company\u2019s old website, which no longer exists, said it provided training, logistics and maintenance services to the Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>When were the men arrested by the Qatari authorities, and why?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The men were picked up by the State Security Bureau, the Qatari intelligence agency. The Indian Embassy first learnt about the arrests in mid-September last year.<\/li>\n<li>On September 30, the men were allowed \u201cbrief telephonic contact\u201d with their family members.<\/li>\n<li>The first consular access \u2014 a visit by an official of the Indian embassy \u2014 was granted on October 3, more than a month after they were taken into custody.<\/li>\n<li><u>The charges against the men were never made public<\/u>, but the fact they were put in solitary confinement led to speculation that they had been detained in connection with a security-related offence.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>India\u2019s stance<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of External Affairs has been closely monitoring the situation, and has extended every possible support to the arrested sailors.<\/li>\n<li>The matter has been taken up at various diplomatic and political levels<\/li>\n<li>In addition to the GoI\u2019s efforts, the families of the former Navy personnel have also filed a Mercy Plea to the Emir of Qatar, who is known to grant pardons during Ramadan and Eid.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Qatari Emiri Naval Force (QENF)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Qatari Emiri Naval Forces (QENF) is the naval branch of the Qatar Armed Forces. The QENF&#8217;s headquarters are in Doha. The QENF has over 4,000 personnel, including the Coast Guard, Marine Police, and Coastal Artillery.<\/p>\n<h3>Q2) Who is the Emir of Qatar?<\/h3>\n<p>The current Emir of Qatar is Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He has been the Emir since 2013.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/india\/8-ex-indian-navy-officers-get-death-penalty-in-qatar-9000475\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Qatar court sentences 8 ex-Indian Navy officers to death, MEA says exploring legal options<\/u><\/a><u> | <\/u><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-global\/qatar-death-penalty-indian-navy-personnel-9000611\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Indian Express<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defence co-operation has been officially described as a \u201cpillar\u201d of Indian-Qatar ties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37899,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}