The government held a high-level meeting chaired by PM Modi to assess the ongoing conflict in West Asia, which poses substantial risks to the global economy and specifically to India’s energy supply.
Photo : ANI
The Centre on Sunday said that the ongoing conflict in West Asia will have significant short, medium, long term impact on global economy and its effects on India were assessed at Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) meeting. The high-level meeting which took place on Sunday evening, was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with almost all Union Ministers including Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Nirmala Sitharaman, Hardeep Singh Puri, among others. The agenda of the meeting was to review the availability of energy resources including oil and natural gas, logistics issues that have been impacted due to the closure of strategic sea pass — Strait of Hormuz, reduction in energy production in Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia amid fears of Iranian attacks.
The conflict in the middle east first began on February 28 when US and Israel in a joint attack pounded over 30 bombs on Iran, eliminating its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several of his close aides and family members. Iran, which blamed the West for imposing war on them, started targeting energy rich Gulf nations including UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar apart from Israel in retaliation and to pressure the United States. Iran closed Strait of Hormuz, a key sea passage from where a third of world’s energy trade takes places, threatening logistics operations, attacked oil and gas facilities to disturb energy production.
The conflict is now impacting Asian and European nations as it has halted and slowed down energy flows, especially for India as it sources 90 per cent of its natural gas requirement from this region. Therefore, in order to assess the developing situation, PM Modi chaired a crucial CCS meeting to review status of energy supplies to India and the region.
Key Outcomes After CCS Meeting
- At CCS meeting, Cabinet Secretary gave detailed presentation on global situation, mitigating measures by government ministries.
- West Asia conflict will have significant short, medium, long term impact on global economy, its effects on India were assessed at CCS.
- Counter-measures, both immediate and long-term, were discussed at CCS to deal with effects on economy due to West Asia conflict.
- PM directs to set up group of ministers and secretaries to work dedicatedly to deal with situation arising due to West Asia conflict.
- Several measures discussed at CCS meet to diversify sources of imports needed by chemicals, pharma, petrochemicals, other industrial sectors.
- The expected impact and measures taken to address issues arisen due to west asia conflict across sectors like agriculture, fertilisers, food security, petroleum, power, MSMEs, exporters, shipping, trade, finance, supply chains and all affected sectors were discussed.
- The overall macro-economic scenario in the country and further measures to be taken were also discussed.
- The impact on farmers and their requirement for fertiliser for the Kharif season was assessed.
- The measures taken in the last few years to maintain adequate stocks of fertilisers will ensure timely availability and food security, it said.
- Alternative sources of fertilizers were also discussed to ensure continued availability in the future.
- It was also determined that an adequate supply of coal stocks at all power plants will ensure no shortage of electricity in India.
- Several measures were discussed to diversify the sources of imports required by chemicals, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and other industrial sectors.
- Similarly new export destinations to promote Indian goods will be developed in the near future, the statement said.
