Editorial: Diplomatic triumph in Doha

CHENNAI: This week, Qatar released eight Indian former naval personnel three and a half months after they were handed down death sentences. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said seven of them have returned to India. It was last October that the Navy veterans were sentenced to death by Qatar’s Court of First Instance in a case of suspected espionage, allegedly for Israel. Then, in December, the Court of Appeal in the Gulf nation commuted the capital punishment and sentenced them to varying jail terms. The Indian nationals, who worked with the private company Al-Dahra Global, were arrested in August 2022.

India was also looking at the possibility of invoking provisions of a bilateral pact on the transfer of sentenced persons. The pact inked between India and Qatar in 2015 provides for citizens of the two nations who have been convicted and sentenced for criminal offenses to serve their sentences in their home country. Neither the Qatari authorities nor New Delhi made the charges against them public. Interestingly, it was learnt that National Security Adviser Ajit Doval played a role in the negotiations with the Qatari authorities in securing the release of the Indians.

The release was viewed by political observers as a major diplomatic win for India, considering the short shrift that nations in the Gulf offer defendants in such cases. BJP leaders pointed out that the developments were a reminder of India’s growing power in global politics, and its abilities to influence major decisions in the international arena. The examples cited include the government bringing back students stuck in Ukraine, Hindus stranded in Afghanistan as well as that of the IAF pilot Abhinandan Varthaman, a POW released by Pakistan.

While it is a given that the soft diplomacy maneuvers exercised by the PM and the Indian Foreign Ministry have gone a long way in freeing the veterans, there are other factors to be considered. In December, the PM had met the emirate’s ruler during the COP summit in Dubai. The meeting was a precursor of sorts to the striking of a critical business deal.

Days before the release of the navy men, India’s Petronet signed its biggest contract, worth $78 bn, to purchase 7.5 mn metric tonnes of LNG annually from QatarEnergy at significantly lower rates. The new agreement specifies an extension of the current deal by two decades i.e. till 2048. Qatar already accounts for 40% of India’s LNG imports. Qatar is also home to eight lakh Indians, who are a source of foreign remittances, apart from 6,000 Indian companies that are operational there. Bilateral trade between the two nations stood at $15.03 bn in 2021-22. So economic concerns cannot really be ignored while navigating touchy diplomatic or political issues.

As far as India is concerned, Doha is an important West Asian power, and its status has been upgraded in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks on Israel, that has turned Qatar into an interlocutor between Hamas and the Western nations. The fact that India has convinced the Qatari administration to release its citizens is symbolic of the political ingress that it has made into the choppy waters of the Arab world’s polity. The favourable outcome assumes gravitas for the BJP-led NDA government, seen in light of the upcoming Parliamentary elections, where it will serve as a feather in the cap.