Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh, the new Indian Consul General in Jeddah, speaks to Saudi Gazette.

Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh, who took over recently as the new Indian consul general, said he would strive vigorously to maintain and further enhance the qualitative leap in all types of services and facilities being extended by the consulate general to the 1.2 million-strong Indian community in the western parts of Saudi Arabia.

“I am keen to pool my experience while serving at the United Nations headquarters in providing the best ever possible services and facilities for the members of the community as well as for the Haj pilgrims,” he told Saudi Gazette.

Sheikh assumed charge as the successor to B.S. Mubarak on June 19 after serving as first secretary at India’s Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New York for seven months.

While expressing his joy over the switch over from the UN headquarters to Jeddah, Sheikh said his experience at UN was exciting even though it was for a brief period. “It’s a unique experience to represent the world’s largest democracy with 1.25 billion people in meetings and drafting statements after being exposed to multilateral diplomacy and having close contacts with missions of 193 nations from all corners of the world. At the UN, things are being done in a way to achieve perfection, with efforts to ensure there are no errors in the way things are done,” he said.

Giving an example, he said: “When a resolution is debated, 193 countries put their minds together. The issues are brainstormed with discussions and extensive debates about minute details to come up with the best output. I hope some of these things I can use here in a different way in terms of perfection and successful negotiations to achieve the best outcome.”

Sheikh, who worked as deputy consul general and Haj consul in Jeddah before his posting at the UN, said the welfare of the huge Indian community would remain his top priority and work to ensure that they face no “inconvenience and discomfort as guest workers in this great country”.

“I am very happy to have a very competent team with me to address the community’s problems in all respects. We will leave no stone unturned in further improving the services with regard to community welfare,” said the diplomat.

Sheikh said his four-year tenure as consul had given him extensive experience to render dedicated services to more than 500,000 pilgrims. “It gave me immense pleasure and satisfaction to serve the guests of God directly and indirectly at the helm of India’s Haj mission together with then Consul General B.S. Mubarak and his predecessor Faiz Ahmed Kidwai.”

Sheikh noted that he had worked with Mubarak during two Haj seasons. “Mubarak is a very fine officer and obviously I will try to build on what we had already worked on. Haj is the largest operation the government of India is carrying out outside the country by handling around 136,000 pilgrims. I will continue to focus on further improvement of the services and facilities for pilgrims, and will carry out this mammoth exercise in the best possible manner with responsibility.”

The consul general vowed to continue serious efforts to further bolster India-Saudi bilateral relations in all respects, especially enhancing business ties with a bigger role for the Saudi Indian Business Network (SIBN). “The visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Kingdom in April was a big boost in this respect. There is a lot of understanding between the two countries in several areas, and we will work on taking this to new levels in almost all sectors.”

Sheikh also spoke about speeding up the process of securing new and spacious premises for the consulate general to cater to needs of the community.

He said the consulate would continue intense, broader and wider interaction with the community. “The consulate will intervene in the best possible manner to address any genuine issues facing the community members,” he said and sought valuable and constructive cooperation and support from the media and the community organizations in discharging the responsibilities.