India and Kuwait to deepen ties, explore strategic energy partnership
FirstpostPM Modi arrived in Kuwait on Saturday on a two-day visit, the first by an Indian prime minister in over four decades. India and Kuwait share a deep and historic bond, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said on Saturday adding that the two nations are poised to transform their traditional buyer-seller relationship into a strategic partnership by exploring opportunities across the entire oil and gas value chain. With Kuwait standing as India’s sixth largest crude supplier and fourth largest LPG supplier, Modi said the scope for further collaboration is immense as his country emerges as the third biggest global energy, oil and LPG consumer. Modi said that the petrochemical sector offers another promising avenue for collaboration as India’s rapidly growing petrochemical industry is set to become USD 300 billion by 2025. India’s relationship with the Gulf is rooted in historical, cultural and trade linkages, with the GCC region accounting for around one-sixth of India’s total trade and hosting around one-third of the Indian diaspora, he said.