Gulf countries keen on improving ties with India

By George Chakko

VIENNA, MARCH 26. The recent OPEC meeting revealed the Gulf countries' interest for stronger ties with India on the economic front. Oil Ministers from Algeria, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) expressed their keen interest in improving the on-going business with India.

India emerging as a new power in the region and her historical oriental-Asian charisma augur well in Arab eyes. Days of overt Pakistan favouritism seem bygone.

India's foreign policy initiatives and her neutral position on inner Arab conflicts seem to pay off. Here are some excerpts of Gulf oil barons' views on India ties as told to The Hindu.

The Minister of Petroleum from the U.A.E., Mr. Obaid bin Saif Al- Nasseri, said ``India is very close to us and one of our important clients. The U.A.E. and India are having good and close cooperation in oil business''.

On the potential of oil against software trade in view of India's payment difficulties in high oil prices, he said, ``I don't think India has difficulties, but that type of business has to be discussed bilaterally. Our discussions (on it) have been continuing and some sort of joint venture, I think, is in the pipeline'.

Iraq's Minister of Oil, Dr. Amer M. Rashid, ``I think we have achieved a very important step during the visit of the Vice- President of Iraq to India. We have agreed on investment by the ONGC in exploration blocks south of Iraq. We are also discussing a joint Indian-Algerian project with Iraq on an important oil field. There will also be oil exchange and refineries (project). So we have quite an ambitious programme.''

On software/oil barter trade, he said, ``there has been some arrangement and it is being discussed by the Indian Government with the respective authority (in Iraq) and I hope they will finalise so that they could lift crude oil against what they say wheat to Iraq.''

The Kuwaiti Minister of Oil, Dr. A. K. Al-Sabeeh, said, ``on every level we have an excellent trade relation with India and we want to keep it this way.''

The Libyan Oil Minister, Mr. A. Abdulkarim Ahmed, said, ``we have good cooperation and communication with India. We want to increase our cooperation in this respect (the oil and software sectors) and also in investment (connected to that). We are arranging something there in the future.

The Algerian Minister, Dr. Chaki Khelil and President of the OPEC conference confirmed that the Indo-Algerian project in Iraq is indeed ``a big one, over 300,000 barrels a day''.

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