AA Edit | Positive push to Kuwait ties signals India’s growing heft

With Kuwait heading the GCC now, the visit also highlighted the role of the region, with its fair sprinkling of Indians forming the majority expatriate population of a few member countries, in India’s increasing global engagements, especially with the Gulf nations. Kuwait was the GCC (comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE) country to which PM Modi was paying a maiden visit.

The civilian award was Modi’s 20th in 10 years. More than an individual honour for a Prime Minister who enjoys a personal rapport with several world leaders, it is to be read as a sign of India’s growing role in world affairs as seen lately in the country emerging as one of the leading voices of the Global South.

An unstated reason for the warmth on display in the 2-day visit, the first since Mrs Indira Gandhi’s visit in 1981, may also have been that a bit of the bitterness of the past lies forgotten. Rancour may have cropped up because Kuwait formed the impression that India had not been sympathetic enough of its plight and cause when invaded by Sadaam Hussein’s Iraqi forces in 1990.

The invasion itself lasted under a week as allied forces rendered Kuwait back to its rulers, but it may have taken a while for that impression, whether based on facts or not, to die down. As Martin Luther King said expressively in describing that feeling, “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”

Today, Kuwait freely acknowledges the contribution of Indian labour to the building of Kuwait from an oil-rich expanse of sand into a modern nation with a capital city to be proud of. PM Modi’s visit to a labour camp was India’s way of admiring what its blue-collar labour force has done for the development of a major part of the Gulf region.

It is the shared vision of the future that the leaders spelt out as Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait and Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah met PM Modi that stands out while the talks were productive towards launching many memoranda of understanding by which India can offer in terms of technology and tech infra, fintech, and pharmaceuticals.

The defence accord that is to do with training, maritime safety and joint production of defence equipment is an indicator of India’s growing strength as a producer of defence equipment and this lends the weight to the elevation of ties to a strategic relationship. What India has offered several nations in a year of intense diplomacy and Prime Ministerial visits is reflective of its growing technological prowess as well its diplomatic approach of putting up front what could be of mutual benefit.