Saudi Arab India Ties On The Upswing
India is the world’s third-largest oil consumer in the world and imports 83 per cent of its consumption. Saudi Arabia is its second-largest supplier after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonnes of crude oil to India in 2018-19 fiscal that is nearly 20% of total import, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonnes of oil.
In 2017-18, India’s bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia was at $27.48 billion, making Saudi Arabia its fourth largest trading partner. India’s ties with Saudi Arabia have been on an upswing over the last few years. Last month, Saudi Arabia said that it was looking at investing $100 billion in India in areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, infrastructure, agriculture, minerals and mining.
India and Saudi Arabia are expected to sign a number of agreements in several key sectors including oil and gas, renewable energy and civil aviation. The two sides would also sign an agreement to establish a Strategic Partnership Council to coordinate on key issues that would meet every two years. The council will be headed by Prime Minister Modi and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia with a key financial summit in Riyadh. He will deliver the keynote address of the Arab nation’s high-profile annual financial conference, hold bilateral meets with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He held a bilateral meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah on the sidelines of the summit.
He also met several key Saudi ministers, including the country’s energy minister. The meet comes in the backdrop of the two nations’ decision to build an oil refinery project in Maharashtra’s Raigarh with investment from Saudi oil giant Aramco, UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and Indian public sector oil firms.
PM Modi will deliver the keynote address under the title ”What’s next for India?” at the Future Investment Initiative, dubbed the ”Davos in the Desert”. The third edition of Saudi Arabia’s high-profile annual financial conference will host financiers, governments, and industry leaders who would discuss global trade and explore trends, opportunities and challenges shaping the global investment landscape.
After reaching Riyadh PM Modi tweeted: “Landed in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, marking the start of an important visit aimed at strengthening ties with a valued friend. Will be taking part in a wide range of programmes during this visit”.
Before leaving India, PM Modi had said Saudi Arabia has been one of the largest and reliable suppliers of India’s energy needs and the two nations always had close ties. Defence, security, trade, culture, education and people-to-people contacts were the key focus areas in bilateral cooperation with Saudi Arabia.
This is PM Modi’s second visit to the Gulf Kingdom. In 2016, during his first visit, he was given the highest civilian award of Saudi Arabia by King Salman. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited India in February 2019.
