S Jaishankar congratulated Bahamas on their 49th Independence Day

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar congratulated the government and people of the Bahamas on their 49th Independence Day.

On the day of the Bahamas’ independence, Jaishankar used Twitter to send his best wishes to the country’s government, its people, and its foreign minister, Fred Mitchell. See here.

India and the Bahamas have a cordial and aspirational relationship.

India and the Bahamas are both members of the NAM, G-77, WIPO, WTO (observer), and the United Nations and its numerous subsidiary bodies. These two countries share democratic governance, a commitment to the rule of law, and a strong determination to protect their citizens’ rights. 

The Commonwealth of The Bahamas

The Bahamas is a nation located in the Atlantic’s Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies. The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is the official name of the country. It covers 97 percent of the Lucayan Archipelago’s land area and has 88 percent of its inhabitants.  

The Bahamas has a primarily African-American population. A substantial minority of people have mixed European and African ancestry, and there are also a comparable number of English pioneer settlers’ descendants and loyalist American Revolutionary War refugees.

The Bahamas enjoys a warm and year-round climate thanks to their low latitude, warm tropical Gulf Stream, and low elevation. The climate of the Bahamas is mostly a tropical savannah climate, or Aw, with a warm and moist season, according to the Köppen climate classification.

Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state of the Bahamas, which is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. A governor-general serves as her local representative. The Westminster system and English political and legal customs are closely followed. The Bahamas shares a head of state with other Commonwealth realms and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. 

This observance of a public holiday commemorates The Bahamas’ 1973 declaration of independence from the United Kingdom. 

On July 10th, the Bahamas celebrate their independence.

The Bahamas became a sovereign state on July 10, 1973, when Prince Charles handed the required documents to Prime Minister Lynden Pindling. On July 10th, 1973, they subsequently joined the Commonwealth of Nations.

The culture of the Bahamas is a fusion of its European and African ancestries. The people of the Americas and the Caribbean have also impacted it. 

India’s association with Bahamas

Since August 2004, the Commonwealth of The Bahamas has been one of the concurrently accredited countries of the High Commission of India in Kingston. 

Bilateral trade between India and the Bahamas has been volatile due to a variety of factors, including distance constraints, the Bahamas’ small market size, and poor air and sea connectivity. However, in recent years, both countries have had significant trade. 

In January 2018, Mission hosted India’s National Day Reception in Nassau for the first time, with the Bahamas Minister of Foreign Affairs serving as the Chief Guest. This tradition of hosting Republic Day Receptions was continued in 2019 and 2020 as well. 

Indian citizens can now enter the Bahamas without a visa for the first 90 days if they have visas from at least one of the four countries listed—the US, Canada, EU, or the UK. Since the Bahamas don’t have a resident mission in India, getting a Bahamas visa through the UK High Commission before traveling to the Bahamas requires a lot of time. 

The Bahamas has enthusiastically backed Indian candidacies for membership in the UN and other international organizations, either unilaterally or reciprocally. The Bahamas is sympathetic to India’s concern about global terrorism and is in favor of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) that India has proposed. 

On several trade-related developments and other international issues, the Bahamas’ stance is largely in agreement with that of India. The Bahamas expects India to play a much bigger role in the Bahamas and the Caribbean region, in addition to being sensitive to and supportive of our aspirations to play an indistinguishable global role, including in the UN Security Council.