• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tarik adopted a vision document to shore up bilateral engagement in 10 key areas and agreed to push for sealing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement as early as possible.

• This visit of Sultan Haitham Bin Tarik is of special significance as it marks the Oman Sultan’s first visit to India in over 25 years since the late Sultan Qaboos’ visit in 1997.

• The two leaders emphasised the need for respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations.

• India and 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. 

Highlights of the visit:

• India and Oman inked five agreements providing for cooperation in the fields of information technology, combating financial crimes, culture and establishing a Hindi chair of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations in Oman.

• The joint vision document will act as a roadmap for strengthening bilateral cooperation in diverse areas and will scale up the India-Oman partnership to new heights.

• The document acknowledges the remarkable synergy between Oman Vision 2040 and India’s development objectives, under ‘Amrit Kaal’, affirming commitment to harnessing these complementarities for deepening the partnership between India and Oman. 

• The document identifies a range of areas such as maritime cooperation and connectivity, energy security and green energy, space, technologies, and applications, digital payments and financial cooperation, trade and investment, health, tourism and hospitality, IT & innovation, as well as agriculture and food security with specific action points as part of the future roadmap to deepen ties between both countries for implementation.

• Both leaders appreciated that negotiations on an India-Oman Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) have commenced and already achieved substantial progress.

• They noted the remarkable growth in bilateral trade. Bilateral trade more than doubled from $5.4 billion in 2020-21 to $12.3 billion in 2022-23.

• Both sides announced the third tranche of $300 million (around Rs 2,500 crore) for the Oman-India joint investment fund, which is a 50-50 venture between the State Bank of India and the Oman Investment Authority to channelise investments into the fastest growing sectors of the Indian economy.

• The Indian side conveyed its appreciation to the Oman side for taking excellent care of the more than 700,000 strong Indian diaspora residing in Oman.

• On the sidelines of the visit, an India-Oman Joint Commemorative Postage Stamp was released symbolising the long-standing cultural and people-to-people relationship between the two countries. The Joint Postage Stamp depicts traditional folk dances, artfully showcasing the cultural heritage of India and Oman and will be cherished by both philatelists and art enthusiasts in both countries.

India-Oman relations

• The Sultanate of Oman is a strategic partner of India and an important interlocutor at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Arab League, and Indian Ocean Rim Association(IORA) fora. 

• Diplomatic relations between India and Oman were established in 1955.

• Oman is a crucial pillar of India’s West Asia Policy. 

• The historical India-Oman bilateral ties were transformed into a ‘Strategic Partnership’ in November 2008.

• Oman is India’s closest defence partner in the Gulf region and defence cooperation.

• Oman is the first Gulf country with which all the three wings of India’s defense forces hold joint exercises.

These exercises are:

i) AL NAJAH (Army)

ii) Eastern Bridge (Air Force)

iii) Naseem Al Bahr (Navy).

• Oman-India Joint Investment Fund (OIJIF) is a 50-50 joint venture between the State Bank of India and the erstwhile State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman. It was set up in July 2010 as a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to invest in India. OIJIF commenced its operations in 2011 with an initial seed capital of $100 million, fully invested across seven Indian companies from diversified sectors.

• India is among Oman’s top trading partners. India is the second largest market for Oman’s crude oil exports for the year 2022 after China. 

• India is also the second largest market for Oman’s non-oil exports for the year 2022 after Saudi Arabia and third largest source of its import after UAE and Saudi Arabia.

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