Bharat relations with Middle Eastern countries are on a good note. In a breakthrough, the eight Bharatiya citizens were released by Qatar on early Monday morning. After being in Qatar for eighteen months, seven of them have already returned while one of them will return soon, ending a prolonged battle of legalities and diplomatic efforts.
Captain Navtej Singh Gill, Captain Birendra Kumar Verma, Captain Saurabh Vasisht, Commander Amit Nagpal, Commander Purnendu Tiwari, Commander Sugunakar Pakala, Commander Sanjeev Gupta, and Sailor Ragesh incarcerated by Qatar, are now back in Bharat safely.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, “The PM Modi has personally supervised all the developments in the respective case and has never shied away from any initiatives that would ensure the return of Bharatiya nationals back to home”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday embarked on a two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, highlighting the ties Bharat shares with these nations. In his departure statement, PM Modi said that his visit will strengthen Bharat’s bilateral ties with both nations.
PM Modi said, “Our cooperation with the UAE has grown manifold over the last nine years in several sectors such as trade, investment, defence, and education”. The Summit’s theme is, “Shaping Future Governments”, which aligns with Bharat’s vision for transformative governance.
The BAPS Swaminarayan temple in Abu Dhabi, the city’s first Hindu temple, is set to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 14, 2024. The temple will open to the public on March 1, 2024. It’s constructed on a 27-acre plot and holds a prayer hall having a capacity of 3,000 people.
#WATCH | Abu Dhabi, UAE: Visuals from BAPS Swaminarayan Hindu Mandir ahead of its grand inauguration on 14th February by PM Narendra Modi. pic.twitter.com/2X5v25UDxL
— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2024
It’s Built with 1.80 lakh cubic feet of pink Rajasthan sandstone, 50,000 cubic feet of pristine white Italian marble and 18 lakh bricks, the temple stands tall at 108 feet, crowned with seven shikhars (spires).
Describing PM Modi’s upcoming two-day visit to the United Arab Emirates for the inauguration of the BAPS Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi as a “special occasion”, Abdulnasser Alshaali, UAE’s Ambassador to Bharat, has said it “aligns with the values of tolerance and acceptance that guide our bilateral ties”.
#WATCH | On PM Modi's upcoming visit to UAE to inaugurate the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi, UAE ambassador to India, Abdulnasser Jamal Alshaali says, "Such visits are very important in keeping the momentum in the relationship…This tells you how important the relationship is… pic.twitter.com/vAtGfsYfjt
— ANI (@ANI) February 12, 2024
In an email interview with the newspaper Indian Express, Ambassador Alshaali said, “The UAE views Prime Minister Modi’s upcoming visit to inaugurate the BAPS Hindu temple as a special occasion that aligns with the values of tolerance and acceptance that guide our bilateral ties.”
“The visit holds symbolic significance which shows the friendship between the two nations,” he says. He also added, ‘The UAE values the cultural diversity represented by the Bharatiya diaspora, the largest group in the UAE with a population of 3.5 million’.
Apart from the opening of the BAPS Hindu temple, the UAE, he said, has a strong expectation that the meeting between the two leaders “will be positive and constructive”. “We will witness the announcement of further cooperation in key areas of our bilateral partnership”, he says.
“The two countries are among each other’s top trading partners with a bilateral trade of about US$ 85 billion in 2022-23. UAE is also among the top 4 investors in Bharat in terms of foreign direct investments in 2022-23”, according to MEA.
On the increasing economic collaboration between the two countries, he said, “The UAE prioritises its bilateral and diplomatic ties with Bharat based upon the two countries’ common political, economic, and diplomatic interests, desire to promote peace and prosperity in the international arena and deep shared history.”
This is a sign of strengthening our bilateral relationship with Middle Eastern countries.
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