Doha: The Minister of External Affairs of India, H E Dr. S Jaishankar, has lauded Qatar for taking care of Indian expatriate community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The primary reason I came here (is) to thank the government of Qatar, starting from H H the Amir for the support and care they have been taking of Indian community members during the very difficult time of COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jaishankar.
The Minister was speaking to the Indian community in Qatar virtually yesterday. The virtual event was attended by Ambassador of India to Qatar, H E Dr. Deepak Mittal, community leaders, educationists, bankers and prominent businessmen.
The Minister of External Affairs also appreciated contribution of Indian community, especially their leaders in addressing COVID-19 challenge successfully, and urged their participation in the development of new India. Speaking about Qatar-India ties, the Minister said: “The relationship with Qatar is strong. I am here to urge them to look at more opportunities, taking the relationship to higher level.”
He said India had historical and contemporary relations with Qatar and the bilateral ties are being further strengthened.
“My visit in a way is a precursor to what we hope to be a normal year in 2021 and resumption of a kind of close contacts and exchanges that we should have,” said the Minister.
“I began my visit here with a business roundtable meeting. The reason I did so was to underline the message that we consider economic cooperation is the foundation of the contemporary relationship.”
“I am pleased to see enthusiasm among Qatari partners for working with India,” said the Minister, giving credit to Indian expatriates for making good name of the country in Qatar.
The Minister thanked Indian community leaders for taking care of their fellow citizens during pandemic like arrangement of chartered flights, Vande Bharat Mission and many more.
“I would like to recognise the services that you have rendered through your organisations and positions in Qatar like doctors, nurses responding to the pandemic,” said the Minister. He said India also responded to the pandemic in a generous and full-hearted way to the global nature of the pandemic, sending medicines to 150 countries worldwide and medical teams in many cases.
Giving first hand information about the pandemic situation in India, he said the pandemic was very tough in India like the rest of the world. He said the government’s preparations helped control the situation and reduced the new cases drastically. “We created health infrastructure to respond to coronavirus and established 15,000 dedicated centres to deal with COVID-19.”
After the speech by the Minister, the community leaders raised their concerns seeking support of the Minister and Indian Embassy for building better facilities for sports and culture to improve the services which their organisations offered to the community.
An educationist made a proposal to help create more educational opportunities to Indian students in term of the provisions of more school seats and higher educational institutes.
The Minister assured the community leaders to address their concerns with authorities concerned in Qatar and India as soon as possible.
Ambassador of India to Qatar, H E Dr. Deepak Mittal said he had taken complete note of the expectations that the community attached with the Embassy. “I would like to assure in the presence of the Minister that the Embassy remained committed to continue to work for the welfare of the community,” he added.
