Modi’s Middle East Policy Should Focus on Migrant Labourers Too

Hopefully Modi’s visit to the UAE will enable a more conducive long-term employment framework for migrant labourers.

Long Lost Neighbour

• Despite the UAE being a part of our extended neighbourhood not enough political endeavours have been made to reach out to the Gulf
• A lot of brouhaha has been made regarding the working conditions of migrant labourers in the UAE, one hopes that Modi’s visit will focus on facilitating a conducive working environment
• Growing influence of China in the region and the US choosing to take a back step makes it relevant for India to make its presence felt

PM Modi’s current visit to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) has been long overdue for the last such visit took place in 1981 when Mrs. Indira Gandhi was at the helm of affairs in India. The paradox is that the UAE has a very distinctive relevance for India and is part of the extended neighborhood and yet a high-level political contact has been inversely proportional to the importance of the region.

The economic, energy and employment index that the UAE represents accords it a very high level of strategic importance and it is evident that PM Modi will seek to maximize the potential of these sectors for India. Before he embarked on his maiden visit to UAE, the PM noted: “During my visit, I seek to enhance cooperation in energy, trade and will talk to investors on why India is an attractive destination to invest.”

Seeking Energy Cooperation

Hydrocarbons and related products are a major component of the Indian imports from the oil rich Persian Gulf in general and the UAE is a major trading partner. It is now adequately noted that after the USA and China, the UAE is India’s third largest trading partner and currently this two-way trade is just under US $ 60 billion.

As regards trade, the UAE and Dubai in particular have emerged as an important transit point for Indian exports and the challenge is to scale up existing regional trade options with Africa and beyond. It is instructive to note that of the world’s 10 largest ports, seven are in China-Hong Kong, one each in South Korea and Singapore respectively and the one port that is outside East Asia is in Dubai – listed at number nine.

Reaching Out to Expats

The employment relevance of the UAE is very significant and the statistics merit scrutiny. Indian expatriate workers – mostly blue-collar including carpenters, plumbers, drivers, electricians, air con technicians et al – have been the mainstay of the local economy since the oil boom of the 1970s.

Currently as many as 26 lakh (2.6 million) Indians are resident in the UAE and this represents 30 percent of the total population of the Emirates. The Indian contribution has been acknowledged by the local elite and the Kerala component of this constituency is of a high order. The lighter vein quip is that Malayalam is the most widely spoken language of the UAE!

This Indian diaspora in the UAE is very different from that which exists in North America and their annual fiscal remittances back to India – now estimated to be US $ 13 billion (about Rs. 80,000 crores) – has been a valuable foreign exchange stream for the Indian exchequer.

However their quiet contribution and arduous working conditions have rarely received the kind of attention they warrant and it is hoped that Modi’s visit will enable a more conducive long-term employment framework. For example the plight of Indian construction workers, domestic help and nurses leaves much to be desired and the UAE with its more progressive policy outlook can set a benchmark for the region.

Attracting Investments

PM Modi’s reference to himself in Tokyo in 2014 will come to the fore in the UAE. At the time, Mr. Modi quipped : “Being a Gujarati, money is in my blood...commerce is in my blood.”

The UAE has a sovereign wealth fund of US $ 800 billion and attracting long term investments into India that will enhance the domestic manufacturing base and concomitant employment potential has a strategic sheen to it. However the success of this effort will be predicated upon Modi’s ability to convert the infamous Indian red tape to a welcoming red carpet – the commitment he made in Tokyo in late 2014 but has not quite been able to implement.

Strategic Importance

The strategic relevance of the UAE in the security domain is subterranean and remains under the radar. While the ‘Gulf’ looms large as regards India’s struggle with smuggling and related criminality for decades, the terrorism linkage is of relatively recent origin. Illegal financial sanctions and money laundering is a murky global ice-berg and the extended Gulf region has many shady and hidden tentacles of this octopus.

The Sunni-Shia sectarian turbulence that has pitted Saudi Arabia against Iran has long term implications for both the UAE and India. More recent developments in West Asia and North Africa (WANA) that include the melt-down in Iraq and Syria and the rise of the IS (Islamic State) represent a shared concern, for the UAE and India are differently vulnerable to these ideologies and related violence.

However the formal security engagement between India and the UAE is of recent vintage and the first meeting of the bi-lateral Joint Committee on Security Matters was held only in March, 2013. Terrorism apart, the maritime domain is also of considerable strategic importance both in the mercantile and naval context.

The rising profile of China in West Asia , the relative dilution of US primacy and the rapprochement with Iran contextualizes the relevance of India for the UAE and Modi’s visit is an opportune occasion to review this extended spectrum.

Hopefully the next visit by an Indian PM to Abu Dhabi will take place sooner than the current interregnum.

(The writer is Director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi)