Indian Ambassador to Kuwait HE Sunil Jain briefed the media and updated the latest developments for the Indian community living in Kuwait. In an updates to the public, Ambassador informed that His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah has invited Indian Prime Minister Sri Narendra Modi to visit Kuwait. The invitation has been delivered to Indian Prime minister and the date of his visit will be decided later.
To strengthen the India Kuwait relation, a joint Ministerial meeting between the two countries will be held in coming September in Kuwait. As part of the joint Ministerial meeting, Minister of State for External Affairs Sri MJ Akbar will lead the Indian side and the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister will be leading the Kuwaiti side. Prior to the Ministerial meeting, separate joint working groups on petroleum and health will have another round of meeting to further strengthen the India Kuwait relationship.
As Part of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Distinguished Visitors programme, former prime minister of Kuwait Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, is invited to visit India. The date of his visit will be declared shortly, ambassador said. Also the two countries are discussing on finalising the Visa waiver for diplomatic and special passport holders of both the countries, ambassador said.
Consular Services
The consular services at the Indian Embassy had increased over the years. To cater to the increasing demands of increasing number of Indian community in Kuwait, passport, visa and attestation services will be outsourced to two different agencies and the two agencies together will open a total of 6 embassy outsourcing centres across the Kuwait, ambassador said. Currently the outsourcing centre CKGS has three centres, one each in Abbsaiya, Kuwait City and Fahaheel.
As per the new system, Indian Embassy will outsource Attestation services also to the outsourcing centres. This will solve the problem of long queues at the Embassy, said the Ambassador.
As per the official statistics, Last year Indian Embassy had issued 96,000 passports and 14,000 visas from Kuwait. Embassy also attested 95000 documents last year. At present the embassy is issuing visa and passport within the same day of receiving the application at Embassy’s from the outsourcing centres. "We are the number one in terms of speed and service among the other embassies in the Gulf", Ambassador said.
Air Connectivity
Civil Aviation of India had already approved the request of two India based private Airlines Indigo Airways and Go Air to start their service to Kuwait. This will give a great relief to the air connectivity problem of the large number of Indian community living in Kuwait, ambassador said. Air India and Kuwait Airways are also working towards a code sharing program, which will help the passengers.
As part of the International day of Yoga, Indian Embassy will observe a curtain raiser event on April 21st at Ahmadi Garden. To respect the Holi Month of Ramadan, Embassy will be observing International Day of Yoga on June 17th.