India to attend OIC meeting for the first time
NEW DELHI: India will, for the first time, attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in the UAE as a guest of honour, with officials describing the invitation for New Delhi as a key foreign policy success in efforts to boost ties with West Asian and Muslim-majority nations. Over the past few decades, New Delhi has had, at best, a prickly relationship with the OIC, largely because Pakistan frequently used the 56-member grouping to target India on the Kashmir issue.
Pakistan and its allies in the Arab world also blocked attempts to give observer status to India, which has the world’s third largest Muslim population.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will attend the inaugural plenary session of the 46th meeting of OIC’S Council of Foreign Ministers to be held in Abu Dhabi during March 1-2 at the invitation of her UAE counterpart, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Swaraj will address the inaugural session as a guest of honour, the external affairs ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
A statement from UAE’S foreign ministry said the meeting will be joined by OIC’S 56 member states, five observer states and the “friendly republic of India”, which has been invited because of its “great global political stature as well as its time-honoured and deeply rooted cultural and historical legacy and its important Islamic component”.
The external affairs ministry described the invitation as a “welcome recognition of the presence of 185 million Muslims in India and of their contribution to its pluralistic ethos, and of India’s contribution to the Islamic world”.
The invitation also reflects the “desire of the enlightened leadership of the UAE to go beyond our rapidly growing close bilateral ties and forge a true multifaceted partnership at the multilateral and international level” and is a milestone in India’s comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE, the ministry said.
People familiar with developments said the invitation for India will add to the discomfiture for Pakistan, especially after the strong condemnation of the Pulwama terror attack by Saudi Arabia during Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit this week. The India-saudi Arabia joint statement had also contained a reference to “Jammu and Kashmir” in the condemnation.
Despite this development, India currently has no plans to make a fresh push for observer status with OIC, the people said. “Let’s take it one thing at a time,” a person said.
The invitation also reflects the “close friendship and trust” between India and the UAE, and bilateral ties had been boosted by Crown Prince Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit as the chief guest for the Republic Day in 2017, a second person said.
These member states, such as Saudi Arabia, are key sources of energy and fertilisers, host 10 million Indian expatriates, and are important defence, counter-terrorism and maritime security partners. India has been engaged at regional and global levels on issues of importance to OIC members, and also interacted with the member states in other organisations such as the Arab League and African Union, the people said.
The OIC meeting, which has the theme “50 years of Islamic cooperation: the roadmap for prosperity and development” coinciding with the organisation’50th anniversary, will discuss challenges facing the Muslim world.
The meet will also discuss steps to promote peace , counter extremism and combat the exploitation of religion and hate speech by inculcating moderation. It will also discuss problems faced by “Muslim minorities in non-member States, particularly Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar”, the UAE foreign ministry’s statement said.