February 27, 2018
King Abdullah’s visit stems from a formal invite forwarded to King Abdullah from PM Modi during his trip to Jordan earlier in February 2018.
India is also Jordan’s fourth largest trade partner, with combined trade of around US$1.4 billion recorded during the financial year 2016-17.
Collaborations have touched sectors ranging from fertilizer to textile and have aided Jordan in boosting its foreign trade with Western economies.
Latest deals between the nations involve defence, information and technology, health and medicine, telecommunication and cultural exchange.
India-Jordan relationship has reached new highs with the recent state visit of Jordan’s monarch King Abdullah II to New Delhi. King Abdullah II was accompanied with a high-level official delegation during his three-day stay starting February 27, during when he met with Shri Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, Shri Venkaiah Naidu, the Vice-President of India and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, among others. The visit stems from a formal invite forwarded to King Abdullah from PM Modi during his trip to Jordan earlier in February 2018. PM Modi’s Jordan visit was the first by an Indian premiere since 1988. The high-level exchanges are critical as Jordan have long been India’s strategic partner in the Middle East.
India is also Jordan’s fourth largest trade partner, with combined trade of around US$1.4 billion recorded during the financial year 2016-17. Trade and business relations between the nations, governed by an agreement signed in 1976, have weathered global economic uncertainties. This has been possible because of strong diplomatic ties and age-old cultural relationship between the two nations. Successful collaborations between the countries have touched sectors ranging from fertilizer to textile and have aided Jordan in boosting its foreign trade with Western economies. In line with this, King Abdullah’s recent visit led to the signing of a number of deals and agreements between the two governments.
The deals included an MoU on defence cooperation, covering areas of manufacturing, counter-terrorism, cyber security and peace-keeping. Other fields of cooperation where deals were signed included mining of rock phosphate and supply of phosphoric acid and fertilizers, information and technology, health and medicine, mass-communication and telecommunication, human resources, cultural exchange and Hindi language. Strengthening ties between the nations have opened up opportunities for joint ventures in the leather, automobile, IT, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy and construction sectors. To explore these avenues, the 10th India-Jordan Joint Trade and Economic Commission was held in New Delhi in 2017.
India’s major imports from Jordan include fertilizers, phosphates, phosphoric acid, while India’s leading exports include electrical machinery, cereals, frozen meat, organic and inorganic chemicals, animal fodders, engineering and automotive parts, among other products. Jordan is home to more than 10,000 Indians, who are employed in textile, construction and manufacturing sectors, fertilizer companies, health sector, universities, IT, financial companies and multilateral organisation.