Doha: HE Ambassador of the Republic of India to the State of Qatar Vipul highlighted Qatar's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as a Dialogue Partner, pointing out that hopes are rising that Qatar will contribute effectively to promoting the organization's goals. Speaking to Qatar News Agency , His Excellency said, "India held the presidency of SCO for the first time last year and promoted the theme of SCO-SECURE which stands for Security, Economic development, Connectivity, Unity, Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and Environmental protection. We hope to continue our work on all these themes in SCO, including with Qatar." "We believe that dialogue and diplomacy are the best way of enhancing international peace and security. Qatar's active regional and international diplomacy is well acknowledged across the world. We have always appreciated the deep insights shared by Qatar on the regional situation," he added. He pointed out that" India and Qatar have very close and mu lti-faceted relations which are historic and founded on our people-to-people ties. Our close political relations are evident from the regular high-level exchanges." He pointed to the visit of the Indian Minister of External Affairs Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Qatar on June 30, where he held fruitful talks with HE Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani on bilateral and international issues of mutual concern. Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Qatar in February 2024. Vipul explained that "India is one of the top three import-export partners of Qatar. Mutual investments between the two countries have continued to grow with some significant investment decisions in the past few months. Qatar is an important partner in our energy security and almost 45 percent of our LNG comes from Qatar. We are also thankful to Qatar's leadership for the support for the large Indian diaspora that lives in this wonderful country." Regarding future pla ns to enhance cooperation between the two sides, especially in the fields of economy, trade, and investment, the Ambassador of the Republic of India to Qatar affirmed that India and Qatar continue to work closely to enhance cooperation in the fields of trade and investment as well as other areas. HE Vipul said: "Our effort is to expand the relationship to newer areas such as renewable energy, sustainability, startups, fintech, AI, and innovation and deepen it further in areas where it is already strong such as energy. With more than 7 percent annual economic growth and measures taken for ease of doing business, India provides a great opportunity for investments which is well recognized in Qatar. Similarly, businesses in India know Qatar's strengths in gas production and finance as well as its focus on innovation and sustainability. This provides mutual complementarities which we hope to fully leverage." At the conclusion of his statement to QNA, HE Ambassador of the Republic of India to the State of Qatar Vi pul explained that "the average trade exchange between our two countries over the past three years is about USD 16 billion annually. A large part of this is constituted by Qatar's energy exports to India, while India also exports a wide basket of items such as food products, engineering goods, iron and steel, gems and jewelry, etc to Qatar. I believe that our trade can become more diversified and even stronger in the years to come." Source: Qatar News Agency