India has been trying hard to strengthen ties with West Asia for the past few years. The recent visit to New Delhi by Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, is probably the outcome of that effort. He visited the South Asian country at a time when the Narendra Modi Administration is exploring avenues to ensure India’s energy security, amidst conflict and unrest in the Middle East.

Since becoming the Prime Minister of India for the consecutive third time in June 2024, Modi has sent his External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Doha thrice (in the last nine months). The Government of India issued a statement after the meeting between Prime Minister Modi and Sheikh Tamim, mentioning that the two countries agreed to elevate their relations to the level of strategic ties. The two leaders also decided to double the volume of bilateral trade in the next five years.

Energy security has been a major concern for India for the past few decades. Currently, India has an 82.8% import dependence for crude oil and 45.3% for natural gas. It imported 232.5 million tonnes of crude oil in 2023-24 from foreign countries, especially from West Asia. Qatar has become an important partner of energy hungry India in recent times. In 2024, New Delhi and Doha signed a long-term contract on the basis of which Qatar would supply Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to India for the next two decades.

For India, the importance of Qatar has increased due to the current geopolitical landscape in West Asia. Australia, Britain, the US and other world powers have set up their military bases in Doha that also have offices of several militant Islamic groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood. Qatar recently helped India to re-establish ties with the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. Oatar, which helped the US and the Taliban to strike the Doha Peace Deal in 2020, is also trying hard to ensure peace in Gaza.

It is because of Qatar, Israel and Hezbollah have agreed to sign a ceasefire agreement. Even after President Donald John Trump announced that the US would take over and own Gaza for the redevelopment of the region, the top political leadership in Doha has assured the Palestinians that no one could displace them within and from the Gaza Strip.

India has rightly realised that Qatar would be its most suitable strategic partner in the complex political geography of West Asia. At the same time, strong diplomatic ties with Qatar would be particularly helpful for India in order to counter China’s growing dominance in the Indo-Pacific region.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das