This is why India cannot annoy the Islamic countries of Arabia.

Bihar: In 2014, when the power of India came to the BJP under the leadership of Narendra Modi, the Gulf countries were given a lot of attention in foreign policy. There was a solid reason behind this as well. Millions of Indians work in this area and send billions of dollars to India. Apart from this, India's three major trade partners UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are the countries of this region. The three countries are India's third, fourth and fifth largest trade partners.

India's energy security also depends on these countries. But for the last two weeks, BJP is finding itself uncomfortable because of its two spokespersons. These Arab countries are Islamic and the BJP spokesperson had made controversial remarks about Prophet Mohammad. There was a sharp reaction from these Islamic countries and after these objections, the party membership of BJP's national spokesperson Nupur Sharma, who commented on the Prophet, was suspended and Delhi BJP spokesperson Naveen Jindal was expelled from the party. The Indian government's response has been very balanced, but at the same time many questions are being raised about the future relationship of relations with Arab countries.

Let's take a look at why the Gulf countries are so important for India?

The importance of Gulf countries to India can be understood from the trade with them. The six Arab countries of the Gulf region, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are called the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC).One-third of the oil imported into India comes from these GCC countries. Qatar is the largest supplier of LLG in India.

Simply put, these six GCC countries meet India's energy needs.

About 9 million Indian migrant laborers live in GCC countries. In the last three years, the amount of remittances to India has been more than $ 80 billion. The participation of GCC countries in this is about 65 percent. The money that Indians living abroad send to India for their families is called remittance.

India's business with Gulf Corporation Council

These countries account for about 15 percent of India's global trade. These figures clearly show that the GCC countries play an important role in India's economy. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the UAE is India's largest trading partner among the GCC countries. It ranks third after the US and China.

Trade with the UAE accounts for more than seven per cent of India's total trade. According to the latest figures for 2021-2022, India exported goods and services worth $28 billion. India's imports stood at about $45 billion.

According to the latest data, India's bilateral trade with the GCC stood at around $154 billion in 2021-2022. India's trade deficit stood at $67 billion. However, before 2019, remittances from the Gulf region stood at around $50 billion.

India's trade with Saudi Arabia and UAE

About 60 per cent of India's imports from GCC countries are crude oil and natural gas. Diamonds, gold and polymers are among other items.

At the same time, India's exports to GCC countries are jewellery, refined petroleum, rice, garments, cars and broadcasting equipment.

India's trade with Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar

In 2021, India and the UAE started negotiations for an economic agreement under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). This conversation was completed this year.

India's Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement issued in February 2022 that negotiations for CEPA began in September 2021 and are now completed.

This agreement will take the economic and business engagement between India and UAE to the next level.

A research paper by the Observer Research Foundation has shown that trade and investment relations between India and the GCC have grown significantly in recent years. Indian investment in GCC countries has been significant but in recent times the investment of these countries in India has increased. Gulf countries consider India as one of the favorite countries for investment.