JEDDAH, 23 September 2003 — India yesterday dismissed fears that a visit by Israeli leader Ariel Sharon amounted to a change in its policy toward the Palestinian issue or its relations with the Arab world.
“Our (foreign) policies do not change by anyone visiting us. There is no dilution in our policy toward Palestine. We fully support the Palestine cause,” Vinod Khanna, India’s junior foreign minister, told reporters at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The minister had been asked whether Sharon’s visit to India earlier this month meant closer ties with Israel that could alienate the Arab world.
Asked whether India’s growing ties with one country would affect its relations with another, Khanna said: “Our bilateral relations are not meant to better relations with one country and spoil them with another.” On the question of Iraq, the minister said: “There is as yet no decision by India on sending its (peacekeeping) troops to Iraq. There is no UN mandate calling for such a step either.”
The minister attended an official ceremony where documents on a Joint Action Plan (JAP) for the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Jeddah were exchanged between the JCCI and the Indian government-established National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC). Ziad Al-Bassam, chairman of the JCCI’s Small Business Development Center, and Indian Ambassador Kamaluddin Ahmed represented the two sides.
The JAP now formalized envisages cooperation in developing a policy and organizational framework for the SME sector and sending Indian experts from various small industry development agencies and financial institutions to the Kingdom to identify small enterprises, undertake feasibility studies, organize exhibitions of Indian SME products and projects in the Kingdom, and exchange sector-specific technology and business delegations, including technology transfer. Khanna hoped that the JAP would open up new areas of cooperation between the two countries. He invited Saudi businessmen to visit India and assess the potential for beneficial cooperation and listed various developments that showed India’s emergence as an economic power.
“The Forbes 200 ranking of the world’s best small companies includes some 13 companies from India,” he said.
The Confederation of Indian Industry is organizing a GCC-India Industrial Conference in Bombay in February. “It’s no coincidence that this first-ever mega business summit has chosen SMEs as one of the priority sectors for cooperation, the others being trade, investments and technology transfer including IT,” Khanna added.
JCCI Vice Chairman Ghassan Sulaiman said cooperation between the two countries was growing and could be further enhanced through such economic involvements. “We need a strong and vibrant SME sector, and we want Indian experts and professionals to help,” he added.
Earlier, Haj Minister Iyad Madani met with an Indian Haj delegation led by Khanna. They discussed arrangements for Indian pilgrims coming for the annual pilgrimage including housing, transportation and health care as well as providing guidance to pilgrims on health and safety matters.
