Thaindian News

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) With West Asia meeting over 70 per cent of its energy needs and hosting a six-million strong Indian diaspora, India Wednesday underlined its high stakes in peace in the region and said it planned to increase personnel at its missions in the Gulf states.

“With the increasing global engagement and evolving international profile of India, the overall work pressure at many Indian missions/posts abroad, including Gulf region, has been increasing, requiring suitable adjustments in terms of manpower,” Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur told the Lok Sabha.

She was responding to a question whether the government was planning to increase staff in Indian missions in the Gulf countries.

Preneet Kaur said the ministry is in the process of implementing general manpower expansion plan spread over ten years, starting from 2008 to meet the increasing workload of Indian missions, including in the Gulf region.

“In respect of the Indian missions/posts in the Gulf region, the overall sanctioned strength has been raised from 499 to 570 over the last five years,” she said.

Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed also underlined the importance of the Gulf region, saying in the Lok Sabha it is India’s largest trading partner with bilateral trade of nearly $145 billion in 2010-11.

The region plays a prominent role in our energy security through supply of over half of our oil and gas needs, Ahamed said when asked whether India’s foreign policy lays special emphasis on the Middle East countries.

Peace and stability in this region are of vital importance to India, he said.

With parts of the energy-rich North Africa and West Asia witnessing political unrest in the aftermath of the Arab spring, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon also underlined New Delhi’s high stakes in peace and stability in the wider Gulf region, including Iran and Iraq.

“For India, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf are vital partners. Almost six million Indians live and work here, and our trade is now over 100 billion dollars a year,” Menon told a high-profile audience comprising diplomats and experts at the Gulf Forum held in Riyadh Monday.

“India has a stake in issues relating to peace and stability in the wider Gulf region including Iran and Iraq,” Menon stressed.

The Gulf Forum 2011 was organised by the Institute of Diplomatic Studies and Saudi Arabia’s ministry of foreign affairs.

Alluding to wider shifts of global power to Asia, Menon called for closer partnership between India and the Gulf region on a host of global issues.

“I am confident that, working together, India and the Gulf will be able to face the challenges that the new geopolitics are throwing up and take advantage of the opportunities that these changes are opening up,” he said.

In a veiled reference to China, Menon said that Asia was turning out to be a cockpit of rivalries.

“If the centre of gravity of world politics, and soon the economy, has shifted to Asia, including the Gulf, Asia is now also the cockpit of rivalries and the stage on which international competition is played out,” he said.

“Uncertainty and insecurity lead powers to follow hedging strategies, each acting on their own worst fears, and thereby risking making them come true,” he said.

Referring to the power shifts and developments in North Africa, West Asia and Gulf, Menon stressed that if this transformation is to be continued, for the benefit of the global economy, energy will be the key.

“And the Gulf will be critical to the rest of Asia’s growth and therefore to global economic health,” he added.

Against this backdrop, Menon pitched for “an open, inclusive Asian security architecture to be evolved by the powers of the region itself.”