‘Friend of Kuwait’ bids adieu to ‘land of goodness’

This news has been read 25811 times!

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 29: In little over two years after serving as India’s Ambassador to the State of Kuwait, HE Sibi George is leaving Kuwait today, Oct 30, 2022, to take up his next assignment in Japan, the island country in East Asia. Before his departure the Indian envoy talks about the India-Kuwait deeprooted relations saying they have always been special based on traditional and civilizational basis and in that relationship.

He said he came when this relationship was moving forward at a very fast pace and he played a key part in furthering this relationship. He says, his experience was one of satisfaction, “I was received by my Kuwaiti friends at every level with warmth, be at government level, business level and people to people level. I take with me a lot of satisfaction after making a lot of Kuwait friends, I always felt at home in this ‘land of goodness’.

“India and Kuwait has always maintained excellent relations. I am proud to recollect that India was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Kuwait as a sovereign nation in 1961 and since then there was no looking back. Our relationship continued to grow and today we have what we call longstanding dynamic partnership.

“What I have been able to do is further contribute to this development by bringing more government to government meetings and a testimony of this is the Foreign Minister of Kuwait visited India in March 2021 and Foreign Minister of India visited Kuwait in June of the same year.

“We were able to sign agreements, establish committees at Foreign Ministers level in the history of our relationship. Similarly, we were able to do joint working group meetings on human resources in health sector and hydrocarbon sector.” The ambassador said these are very important sectors in India-Kuwait relationship as India depends on Kuwait for energy security and Kuwait depends on India for food security. He went on to say, India-Kuwait are involved in a mutual beneficial partnership in which

“we have built up between our two nations, Moreover, during my tenure we witnessed a very challenging Covid-19 pandemic period and this was another opportunity to take our relationship further. The large number of Indian doctors and nurses, he said, contributed immensely to fight the pandemic in Kuwait; India sent a medical team in the very beginning of the outbreak of the pandemic and the ‘Pharmacy of the World’ India sent Made in India vaccines to Kuwait and Kuwait supplied India with medical oxygen which was a great support at that time, so this further strengthened the relationships during that time.” When asked about the almost non-stop celebrations that the India embassy organized under his guidance, Ambassador George said, he came at a very special and important period because

“we celebrated 60 years of establishment of India-Kuwait relations and 75 years of India’s independence. “The confluence of these important events has helped me to put together a series of events. In fact I am so happy that for the first time in the history of our relationship on these two occasions the Indian Tricolor was displayed on the Kuwait Towers. We have been able to organize a series of events at most the iconic places in Kuwait including the Sadu House, the Kuwait National Library and Kuwait National Museum and many other places. During these events we brought together Indian and Kuwaiti talents and we were able to further develop people to people connect and this helped in further strengthening our relationship.

“In our relationship there are many stake holders and what is most essential is the government to government element since we have a large business community in Kuwait and similarly many Kuwaitis have invested in India. In this regard I had several rounds of talks with the Kuwait investment authority officials and I am very happy at the business activity that is happening between our two countries. I was very heartened to hear from every Kuwaiti I have met who said the Indian community in Kuwait is law abiding, sincere, hard working, and honest and dedicated to their work. I was able to work with this community in further strengthening the relationship with the support that community we were able to organize events, arrange for oxygen supply during Covid 19 pandemic. I am thankful to the community members who gave their all during my tenure in Kuwait. The Indian envoy says, he felt more closer to the community during his tenure through the Open House events, during which he made every Indian working in Kuwait feel the “Embassy was home away from home.” He also said he had the opportunity to meet and know his people better.

This news has been read 25811 times!