India's Gulf Diplomacy and Diaspora Dimension

India maintains close ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman — driven by three interlocking interests: energy imports, remittances from the Indian diaspora, and trade. Approximately one crore (10 million) Indians live and work in the Gulf countries, making it the world's largest diaspora corridor. Remittances from this diaspora are consistently among India's largest sources of foreign exchange inflows. India has signed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs) with the UAE (effective May 2022) and Bahrain, and maintains a Free Trade Agreement with GCC countries under negotiation.

India's foreign policy framework under the Modi government has characterised the Gulf through the doctrine of "Act West" — a geographic complement to "Act East" — and has deepened bilateral ties with all GCC states irrespective of their geopolitical alignments with Iran or the US.