Kuwait has joined the growing list of Gulf nations who have not only rejected attempts to spoil ties with India through ‘foreign-sponsored’ social media handles and posts but have also reassured their sincere commitment towards friendship with New Delhi, reports ET

Kuwait has joined Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar who all have rejected attempts to spoil ties with India after various fraudulent social media handles sponsored by ‘foreign entities’ tried to sow discord between New Delhi and Gulf nations.

The Kuwait Government’s response came in the backdrop of numerous social media handles that later turned out fake had accused India of demonizing Muslims during COVID-19 pandemic.

The Kuwaiti government’s response has won praises from New Delhi. In response to media queries, the official spokesperson Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Anurag Srivastava said, “We have seen certain references to India in non-official social media handles in Kuwait.

The Government of Kuwait has assured us that they are deeply committed to friendly relations with India. They also do not support any interference in the internal affairs of India.”

India recently deployed a Rapid Response Team in Kuwait and rendered valuable assistance in the training of medical staff and treatment of COVID-19 infected patients. “It is therefore important that the friendly and cooperative nature of our relations is accurately recognised and misuse of social media is not given credence,” Srivastava emphasised.

The historical basis of India-Kuwait ties was also pointed out by Kuwait’s Ambassador to India — Jassem Al-Najem who spoke about the shared foreign policy principles between India and Kuwait such as respecting UN Charter, non-interference in other countries affairs and respecting the sovereignty of nations.

Earlier, Ambassador of India to Qatar tweeted about how anti-India forces were using fake social media handles to create divisions within the Indian community and had urged Qatar’s Government to understand the reality and not allow such malicious attempts to vitiate the bond between New Delhi and Doha.

Tweets from fake handles purporting to be from members of Omani Royalty tried to impair the relationship between the Gulf region and India. For instance, a fake tweet quoting Mona bint Fahad, the assistant Vice Chancellor of Sultan Qaboos University for International relations and daughter of Oman’s Deputy PM Sayyid Fahd said that if Indian government failed to stop the persecution of Indian Muslims, then one million Indians in Oman may be expelled as a result.

Indian Ambassador to Oman Manu Mahawar thanked Mona bint Fahad on her official handle @MonaFahad13 for her clarification on the fake social media posts attributed to her and reaffirmed India’s commitment to work closely with the Government and people of Oman to further deepen their special relationship.

“The friendly relations between India and Oman are underpinned by our shared values of tolerance and pluralism. Let us all commit to maintaining unity and social harmony at this critical juncture.

As PM Narendra Modi had stated, we are in this together. In these challenging times, it is important that we stay focused and united in our fight against COVID-19, and not get distracted by fake news on social media with malicious intention,” the Embassy in Muscat had tweeted.