Oman, India set to sign maritime pact
Oman and India will be signing an agreement for cooperation in the field of maritime transport on Tuesday.
Indian External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar, who is in Oman on a two-day trip, will be signing the agreement from the Indian side while Oman will be represented by the Ministry of Transport.
A statement from the Indian Ministry of External Affairs stated that Dr Jaishankar is in Oman at the invitation of H E Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs, who last visited India in July 2017.
During the visit, Dr Jaishankar, in addition to meeting his counterpart, will hold meetings with other ministers to discuss matters of mutual interest. ‘ An agreement for cooperation in the field of maritime transport will be signed during the visit. The minister will also interact with the Indian community in Muscat during the visit.’
Oman is a strategic partner of India and the two countries are linked closely by geography, history and culture and enjoy warm and cordial relations attributed to historical maritime trade linkages. The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Oman in February 2018 was path breaking and has led to further consolidation of close ties as well as identifying new areas of cooperation, the statement added.
India is among Oman’s top trading partners. During 2018-19, bilateral trade was US$5bn. In 2018, India was the second largest importer of crude oil from Oman. There are over 780,000 Indian citizens in Oman.