President of India Pranab Mukherjee paid offical visit to Jordan from 10-12 October 2015. It was the first visit of President of India to Jordan in the last 65 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited Jordan in 1988. From the Jordanian side, King Abdullah and Queen Rania visited India in 2006. The visit of President Mukherjee to Jordan underscores the desire of the two countries to strengthen their bilateral relations.
During the visit, the President met the King Abdullah and had extensive discussions on entire gamut of bilateral relations, regional and international issues of mutual concern. President also visited the University of Jordan and delivered a public speech there. He also graced a function organised by Indian Ambassador in Amman for Indian community and Friends of India.
The President also had a meeting with the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan called on the Hon’ble President. In the presence of the President of India, a following agreements were signed during the visit.
- Agreement on the conscious of the existing friendly relations, desirous of establishing effective co-operation on the basis of shared commitment, and convinced on strengthening and development of relations in merchant shipping and maritime transport .
- MOU between the Foreign Service Institute, India and & the Jordan Institute of Diplomacy, Jordan on exchange of information on structure and content of training programmes for diplomats, Identification of experts in mutually agreed areas, Promotion of contacts and exchange of trainees, students, faculty members and experts.
- MOU on Cooperation in the field of IT & Electronics on examining ways and means to promote and strengthen bilateral cooperation; Considering the developmental partnership established; Recognising the mutual benefits, potential and the need to leverage capabilities; Implementing Institutional and Capacity Building cooperation programme.
- Cultural Exchange Programme for 2015-17 for further development and promotion of cultural, scientific and technical relations; Recalling the Cultural Agreement signed on 15 February 1976; Agreement on the Executive Programme in the fields of Art & culture, Mass media etc.
- MOU between the Bureau of Indian Standards and the Jordan Standards and Metrology Organization for Cooperation in the fields of Standardization and Conformity Assessment to enhance and strengthen technical co-operation in the fields of standardization, and conformity assessment with the aim of exchanging necessary information and expertise between the Parties.
- Cooperation Agreement between Jordan News Agency and Press Trust of India on establishing regular exchange of content on the developments; Promoting mutual cooperation and professional interaction, Agreement on exchange of news through the Internet; Accepting the right to use the said news for distribution to their subscribers.
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India and the Kingdom of Jordan signed their first bilateral agreement for cooperation and friendly relations in 1947, which was formalised in 1950 when India became a sovereign democratic republic. Apart from this, military, cultural and economic exchanges between the two nations is widespread. Jordan is also a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and has thus forged close relations with India.
India-Jordan trade is governed by an agreement signed in 1976. A Trade and Economic Joint Committee constituted under the Agreement promotes and monitors the progress. Over the years, bilateral trade has grown rapidly despite global economic downturn. Balance of trade has been in favour of Jordan during the last few years for reasons of massive imports of phosphate and potash by India. There exists a successful cooperation in fertilizer sector between the two countries. In October 2009, foundation stone for an India-Jordan project for manufacturing phosphoric acid in Eshidiya (about 330 Kms south of Amman) was laid by His Majesty the King Abdullah II.
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Notable, in 2008, India was Jordan’s largest export partner and ninth largest import partner. Subsequently, in 2009, there was slight decline in trade turnover between the two countries registering the volume of trade at a value of US£983 million. Various important factors like global economic slowdown, decline in the international price of phosphates and also on huge trade growth in the previous year could attribute for the decline. Trade volume once again picked up in subsequent years i.e. 2010 and 2011 respectively.