India, Oman adopt vision document to expand ties

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Haitham bin Tarik, the Sultan and Prime Minister of the Sultanate of Oman on Saturday, in Delhi. The two held bilateral talks at Hyderabad House in the national capital, as Haitham bin Tarik begins his three-day visit to India today.

New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Oman's Sultan Haitham bin Tarik on Saturday firmed up a vision document to significantly expand bilateral cooperation in around 10 key areas and pushed for concluding a trade pact as early as possible during their "productive" talks here. Modi and Tarik also discussed the situation arising out of the Hamas-Israel conflict and the challenge of terrorism as well as the larger need to try and achieve a two-state solution to the Palestine issue as a way forward.

At a media briefing, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra described the discussions between Modi and the visiting leader as "comprehensive and constructive". He said PM Modi and Oman's Sultan adopted a joint vision document to lay the pathway for bilateral cooperation in a range of areas, including the maritime sphere, connectivity, green energy, space, digital payments, health, tourism and agriculture and food security.

"Duqm port in Oman provides us a logistical base for cooperation between the two nations, in the field of maritime cooperation, including humanitarian disaster relief," said Vinay Kwatra. "Our cooperation on maritime space is quite extensive. Both leaders identified humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and disaster management as important areas of cooperation. One of the key elements in maritime cooperation is the question of logistics," Kwatra said.

Kwatra said PM Modi and Sultan Tarik also gave strong impetus and push to conclude the India-Oman comprehensive economic partnership agreement as early as possible. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met the Sultanate of Oman, Haitham bin Tarik, and held bilateral talks. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra told reporters that the discussion between the leaders was comprehensive and constructive, including maritime, shared concern on terrorism, green energy security cooperation, people to people-to-people ties through cricket.

"Oman's Sultan congratulated PM Modi for a successful G20. The two leaders adopted the India-Oman joint vision for bilateral engagement under Oman 2040 and PM Modi’s 'Amrit kal vision'.Vision Document focuses on building a partnership in maritime, energy security, green energy, space, digital payment, full bucket of health tourism, disaster management, agriculture and food security and cricket," he said.

There have been ongoing discussions between the two countries for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. Although the negotiations on CEPA have started only recently, they have made substantial progress in the last few rounds of discussion and both leaders gave strong impetus and push to conclude the CEPA agreement as early as possible.

Both countries signed an MoU in Information and Technology, culture, combating financial crime, and Hindi chair ICCR in Oman. The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, visited Oman in February 2018, his first visit to Oman as the Prime Minister. Oman is the closest neighbour in the Arabian Gulf region. During the meeting today, both leaders discussed the West Asia crisis and emphasized the two-state solutions to the Gaza conflict.

"Today is a historic day in India-Oman relations as the Sultan of Oman is on a state visit to India after 26 years... I am sincerely welcoming you on behalf of all the people of India," Modi said in his opening remarks at the delegation-level dialogue. India and the Sultanate of Oman are strategic partners and the bilateral trade and investment relationship between the two nations has been on an upswing in the last few years. (With Agency Inputs)