India, Kuwait to form joint commission for cooperation at level of foreign ministers

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) — India and Kuwait on Wednesday agreed to form a joint commission for cooperation at the level of foreign ministers, according to an official statement.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding to set up the commission, making the announcement as bilateral talks took place between Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar with his visiting Kuwaiti counterpart Abudullah Ali Al Yahya in New Delhi.

"⁠Both ministers held bilateral talks and reviewed the entire spectrum of India-Kuwait ties in areas including political, trade, investment, energy, food security and people to people ties," the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

The leaders also "exchanged views on regional and international issues of mutual interest," the statement added.

Under the joint commission, they also agreed to establish new joint working groups for trade, investment, education, technology, agriculture, security and culture.

According to the ministry, the mechanism will "act as an umbrella institutional mechanism to comprehensively review" and monitor the "entire gamut of our bilateral relations under the new Joint Working Groups and the existing ones in areas including Hydrocarbons, health and consular matters."

⁠Foreign Minister Yahya also made a courtesy call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit.