Date: November 11th 2008

From: dailypioneer date: 11.11.08

PTI | Doha

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday wrapped up his maiden visit to the Gulf on a successful note that saw him inking agreements for defence cooperation with Qatar and investments with Oman, and more crucially making a pitch for stepping up energy imports.

The highlight of the November 8-10, two-nation visit was the signing of defence and security cooperation agreement with Qatar that lays the framework for collaboration on maritime security, sharing intelligence and information on extremist threats, money laundering and smuggling of narcotics.

"The agreement is just short of stationing troops (in the region)," a top Indian official said.

India also sought an additional 5 million tons of liquefied natural gas from Qatar to meet its growing energy needs and has proposed to set up a gas-fired fertiliser plant in the Gulf nation to meets its urea needs.

"We had an excellent one-hour meeting. (Qatar's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al) Attiyah is a great friend of India and promised to look into our LNG needs," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said.

At Qatar and earlier in Oman, Singh sought to leverage surplus funds in the region for investment in infrastructure sector to boost economic growth that is slowing due to the global financial crisis.

New Delhi and Muscat also put together a $100-million fund for financing multi-sector projects in the two countries.

The two sides also signed an agreement for protection of rights of about five lakh Indians working in Oman.