India-Qatar Ties: Qatar may have shown bitterness about India after the controversial remarks of suspended BJP leader Nupur Sharma on Prophet Mohammad. But this country, situated in the Persian Gulf, at a distance of 2900 km from India, has advocated only friendly relations with India in the past. Business between the two countries is such a thread that the Sheikhs of Qatar are also benefited, and the companies of India also earn profits from it.
Qatar (11,571 sq km), just a little bigger than India’s Tripura state (10,486 sq km) with a population and area of 2.9 million, has given India an extensive guarantee in energy security. According to the Indian Embassy in Qatar, Qatar is India’s largest LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) exporter. India imports 40 per cent of its total LNG imports from Qatar. At the same time, India’s purchases account for 15 per cent of Qatar’s total LNG exports.
Qatar’s gas is the guarantee of clean and safe energy for India. This can be understood how important India is to Qatar as a buyer.
A special treatment for India
In 2016, Qatar cut LNG prices for India by more than 50 per cent. According to the then Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, after several rounds of talks with Qatar, it has been agreed to raise LNG prices to $5 per metric million British thermal units. Earlier in 2015, India had to buy liquefied natural gas from Qatar at $ 12 per metric million British thermal units. India had benefited from this deal of billions of dollars. However, when Qatar gave this advantage to India, the prices of petroleum products and gas decreased worldwide.
In 2016, when the deal was finalized after 51 meetings, Dharmendra Pradhan said that “Qatar has been a good business friend of India. We need to move from buyer-seller relations to a long-term strategic partnership.” This remark of Dharmendra Pradhan needs to be understood today when India has acted as a prominent leader of its party, respecting Qatar’s displeasure.
Let us tell you that Petronet LNG Limited, a state-owned company in India, imports LNG from RasGas of Qatar. Due to the good business deal with Qatar, India saved $ 15 billion on gas deals from 2003 to the next 11 years. This has been possible due to Qatar selling gas to India at low prices.
India is also exempted from paying Rs 12000 crore.
The effect of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s aggressive diplomacy on energy was that Qatar gave India a rebate of Rs 12000 crore. India had to pay this amount to Qatar as a fine. India had bought less LNG than the agreement agreed upon in 2015. Instead of this, India had to pay this fine. But due to the agreement between PM Modi and the Emir of Qatar in 2015-0216, Qatar agreed to give this exemption to India.
Let us tell you that under the agreement, Petronet had signed an agreement to buy 7.5 million tonnes of gas per year from the Qatar company. But in 2015, this Indian company had bought only 68 per cent of the gas. But under the ‘Take or Pay’ clause, Petronet was to pay the entire contracted amount because its purchase was less than 90 per cent.
On 31 December 2015, India’s Petronet LNG signed an agreement to import 1 million tonnes of additional LNG every year from RasGas of Qatar. This agreement is till 2028.
India also played friendship.
The Arab countries may look like a cultural unit, but they have significant differences. One such geopolitical development was witnessed in June 2017. In June, gulf politics came to a boil when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and blocked Qatari planes from entering their airspace. Saudi Arabia was leading this campaign. Saudi accused Qatar of supporting terrorism. Qatar was also accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and IS. However, Qatar denied these allegations.
India was facing a dire situation in this unprecedented situation. India’s trade partners were on both sides. Saudi and UAE are also important trading partners of India. India adopted a policy of neutrality during this period. India said that this is an internal issue of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Here Saudi had blocked sea-land and air routes to Qatar.
In such a situation, India had a two-pronged challenge. First- how India should maintain its business relationship with Qatar; second, how India can evacuate its expatriate citizens from Qatar. There was also a concern in front of India that Saudi and UAE could also pressure India to consider its relationship with Qatar if this dispute escalated. However, this did not happen. India acted with restraint and suspended exports to Qatar for a few days due to route blockages. As soon as the situation became normal, India normalized its relations with Qatar. In determining its relationship with Qatar, India took into account the interests of itself and Doha only.
Qatar’s fate changed like this.
Let us tell you that LNG is usually sent in large quantities through water vessels to countries where pipeline access is impossible due to long distances. Natural gas is then cooled to 160 °C and transported in liquid form. India had modest trade relations with Qatar in the 20th century. India used to import pearls from Qatar and export spices. This series was going on when the year 1940 came.
Booming dollar harvest
This decade of the 20th century brought a knock of good luck on the fate of Qatar. Qatar discovered an oil well off its coast for the first time this year. Its name was Dukhan Onshore Oil Field. The oil extraction from this oil field spread over 80 km in 1940, and export started here in 1949. After this, this country lay in the desert, as if the crop of dollars rose.
Qatar’s attention now turned to the oil well present in the sea. The search was started, and after 20 years, Qatar discovered two offshore sea wells. Within a few years, oil production started from here, and with this, Qatar’s fortunes shone. When Qatar’s economy took a turn, it needed labour and India’s colossal labour market fulfilled this need. By 1990, more than 5 lakh foreign labourers and workers working in Qatar were from India.
At present, about 7 lakh Indians live in Qatar. These Indians follow their religious faith according to the Constitution of Qatar. The fabric of relations that India and Qatar have woven is based on trade; it is necessary that both the countries respect each other’s spirit.
