India, Bahrain to hold meeting of High Joint Commission

India and Bahrain are to hold a meeting of their High Joint Commission (HJC) on 7th April, the Ministry of External Affairs here announced following a meeting of senior officials of the two sides in virtual mode.

 

The HJC will be co-chaired in New Delhi by Dr. S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India and Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

 

The HJC, successor to the India-Bahrain Joint Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation, was established during the visit of the King, His Majesty Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, to India in February 2014. It has met every three years since – in 2015 and 2018. This month’s meeting will be the Commission’s third joint session.

 

The senior officials’ meeting was co-chaired by Sanjay Bhattacharyya, Secretary in charge of the Gulf and Arab countries at the Ministry of External Affairs here and Dr. Sheikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Under Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bahrain.

 

The HJC will review bilateral cooperation in oil and gas, trade and investment, food security, healthcare, renewable energy, space, information technology, human resource, education and culture.

 

The Indian Minister of External Affairs visited Bahrain in November last year. He met Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s Crown Prince and Prime Minister as well as his Bahrain counterpart, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, during that visit.