Abu Dhabi crown prince as R-Day chief guest sends a political message
NEW DELHI: The selection of the chief guest for Republic Day carries a political message. The crown prince of Abu Dhabi will be the second leader from the Gulf to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade after king of Saudi Arabia in 2006.
In 2013, India almost had a chief guest from the Gulf region. But the sultan of Oman opted out on health grounds, and king of Bhutan became the guest for the event for the fourth time that year.
The Gulf region is home to more than seven million Indians. During 2015-16, India’s exports to GCC (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar) countries were US $41.71 billion.
The bilateral trade during the period was US$97.46 billion. According to Moody’s investors service report, India gets 52.1% of its remittances from the Gulf nations (the exposure of Pakistan to the region is the highest at 61.2% of remittances). And the region is a key source for India’s steady oil imports.
Also factoring in the strategic significance of the region, there should have been more Republic Day chief guests from the Gulf nations, but this hasn’t happened.
The selection of Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE armed forces as chief guest shows the government’s special focus on the emirates and the region, of late.
The UAE was the first Gulf country Prime Minister Narendra Modi chose to visit. It was the first bilateral visit to the UAE by an Indian prime minister in 34 years.
The UAE remain the most vocal partner in the region to share India’s concern on terrorism, which New Delhi hopes will send a signal to Pakistan. During Modi’s visit in August 2015, the joint statement mentioned terrorism 11 times. Some of the content was aimed at expressing concern about terrorism in the region and Pakistan’s sponsorship of it.