November 25, 2014

The 4th India-Arab Partnership Conference: New Horizons in Investment, Trade and Services will be held in New Delhi on 26-27 November 2014. This is a flagship event organized under the Memorandum of Cooperation signed between India and the Arab League in December 2013, which mandates invigorated cooperation between the two sides. The Conference is being organized by the Ministry of External Affairs in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the Secretariat of the League of Arab States and the Arab industry.

The India-Arab Partnership Conference has emerged as an important biennial forum for promoting the two-way flow of business and investment, and is strongly placed to leverage the emerging opportunities for a ‘win-win’ partnership.

The Partnership Conference will be inaugurated by Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Commerce & Industry on 26 November 2014. The delegates will also be addressed by Gen (Dr) V.K. Singh (Retd), Hon’ble Minister of State for External Affairs. The Conference is expected to be attended by the Arab Trade Ministers as well as a large number of Indian and Arab CEOs to discuss business and investment opportunities in identified cutting edge sectors.

India and the Arab countries historically enjoy close relations. The Partnership Conference comes as part of a series of high level meetings planned for this year to elevate the level of engagement between the two sides. In August 2014, the first India- Arab Media Symposium was held in New Delhi. Early this month, India and the League of Arab States organized the first Senior Officials Meeting, which presented an opportunity to the two sides to discuss the whole gamut of bilateral, regional, and multilateral issues. On the cultural side, the India-Arab Cultural Festival is currently being held in Algiers from 20-27 November 2014. There is also an agreement to hold the India-Arab League Ministerial Summit in 2015.