India and LAS signed an MoU institutionalizing the process of dialogue in March 2002. Several rounds of consultations at the level of Secretary (East) and Deputy Secretary General of Arab League were held in March 2002, May 2003, June 2004, May 2007, August 2010 and December 2013. During Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa’s visit to India in December 2008, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed for the establishment of Arab-India Cooperation Forum.
In December 2010, the Indian Ambassador in Cairo was designated as India’s Permanent Representative to the League of Arab States with Observer Status. In April 2013, the League proposed a revised Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC). The revised MoC proposed replacing the High Level Joint Committee of the 2008 MoC with a format of biennial Ministerial and annual Senior Officials meetings involving all the member states and the Arab League Secretariat. The new MoC was attached to an [Executive Programme (EP)] of the Arab-Indian Cooperation Forum for 2014-15, which included specific cooperation in a number of fields.
Dr. Nabil El Araby, the then LAS Secretary General (SG) paid a visit to India on 17 December 2013 to sign the new documents. EAM met Dr. El Araby in August 2015 during her visit to Cairo and reviewed India-Arab relations as well as regional issues. EAM participated in the First Ministerial meeting of the Arab-India Cooperation Forum in January 2016 in Manama, Bahrain. The Manama declaration and the Executive Program for 2016 and 2017 were adopted.
This opened up a new chapter in India –Arab relations. The Executive Program covers a broad range of subjects and envisages, one of its special features was India-ARAB Partnership Conference Summit: This is the flagship event in the economic field, to be held every two years, with the participation of Ministers of Commerce and Industry.
As a continuation of four earlier Partnership summits, 5th session of the India-LAS Partnership conference was held in Muscat in December 2016. Indian side was led by MoS (MJA).
Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) to be the lead coordinating partner in this flagship initiative.
The India-Arab partnership conferences had previously been held with the motive of setting up Arab Indian financing institutions to facilitate banking transactions and to encourage investments between the parties. The multi-sectoral partnership conference is open to forge joint business ventures with business from Arab countries. The conference seeks to provide a platform for Indian and Arab businessmen to interact and explore new opportunities for investment and business, with focus on mega-investment opportunities in India, to potential Arab investors.