External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar to visit Palestine on 8th March

New Delhi: India's External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will be on a visit to Palestine's Ramallah from March 8th to 9th. The key focus of his visit will be the India-Palestine Joint Commission Meeting (JCM), which he will co-chair along with his Palestinian counterpart Riad al-Maliki. This is Dr Jaishankar's first ever visit to Ramallah in his capacity as External Affairs Minister. During the visit, the EAM will also call on Palestine's President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. 

The JCM took place in November 2016. In January 2016, the then EAM Sushma Swaraj had visited Palestine and met President Abbas, Foreign Minister Riad. During her visit, she inaugurated the India Palestine digital learning and innovation center at Al Quds University, Ramallah.

During this visit as well, EAM Jaishankar is expected to inaugurate a $5 million techno park project. While India continues to support the Palestinian cause at bilateral and international levels, New Delhi has been extending economic assistance to the Palestinian people. Two schools were built in Palestine in 2015 through Indian aid. The Indian government has set up an India-Palestine Centre of Excellence in ICT and Innovation in Al Quds University, Abu Dis in 2015 and another ICT center in Ramallah in 2016.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited the de jure sovereign state on February 10, 2018. Before that, the then Indian President Pranab Mukherjee had paid a visit in October 2015. During the President's 2015 visit, India had announced five projects worth $17.79 million, which included a Palestine-India Techno Park in Ramallah and Palestine Institute of Diplomacy. 

Indian PM Modi has been bestowed with the highest Palestinian award of the “Grand Collar of the State of Palestine”. New Delhi has also increased its annual contribution towards the UN Relief and Works Agency in the Near East (UNRWA) from USD 1.25 Million to USD 5 Million in the backdrop of the financial crisis being faced by the UN agency.

The visit to Palestine will see ythe EAM visiting other countries in the region, with an expected in-person West Asian Quad meet on the anvil. The West Asian Quad includes UAE, India, Israel and the US, also known as I2,U2 is expected to hold an in-person meeting in Dubai. This means, US Secretary of State Blinken, Israeli FM will also visit the country. But with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, things could drastically change as worries continue over Russian President Putin's ongoing military offensive. The west Asian quad last met virtually, during EAM's Israel visit last year and since then all sides have appointed a nodal person who will coordinate from each country on various issues, primarily economic. 

This year, EAM has already visited the Indo Pacific region with visits to Australia, Philippines, Europe with visits to Germany and France. But the first visit he made this year was to Qatar, in west Asia.