The two officials discussed ways to support and develop cooperation relations between the two countries.
Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, held talks with India’s Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to discuss bilateral relations between Doha and New Delhi.
The discussions took place in Doha on Sunday as part of Jaishankar’s visit to the country, the Gulf state’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
“They discussed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to support and develop them and several topics of common interest,” the statement said, without providing further details on the meeting.
An earlier statement by India’s foreign ministry said the visit aimed “to review various aspects of bilateral relations including political, trade, investment, energy, security, cultural and people-to-people”.
Jaishankar’s visit came five months after India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Gulf state.
Modi, whose Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won this year’s general election earlier this month, previously visited Doha in February, which marked his first such visit to the country since 2016.
At the time, Modi met with Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and expressed his “commitment to further expanding and deepening bilateral cooperation” with Qatar.
He also thanked the Qatari leader for hosting the Indian community of 800,000, which represents 26 percent of Doha’s population.
According to India’s foreign ministry, the country is among Qatar’s three largest export destinations. Qatar is also India’s largest LNG supplier, accounting for 48 percent of its global imports.
Other key Qatari exports to India include chemicals, petrochemicals, plastics and aluminium. India’s exports to Qatar included cereals, copper articles, iron and steel, vegetables, fruits, spices, processed food products, textiles among others.
There are more than 15,000 Indian companies operating in Qatar, spanning the sectors of infrastructure, communications and information technology.
