Saudi Arabia seeks to elevate its ties with India from the current “strategic partnership” during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Riyadh early next month, the kingdom’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said yesterday.
“We look forward to Prime Minister Modi’s visit which will be another milestone in the relations between our two great nations,” Jubeir said after holding talks with Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in the run-up to the prime ministerial visit.
“We hope to elevate our relationship from that of the current ‘strategic partnership’,” he said.
Modi’s two-day visit from April 2 on his way back from the US will be the first by an Indian prime minister to Saudi Arabia after then prime minister Manmohan Singh’s trip in 2010.
Modi’s visit assumes significance in the context of the current regional situation and strained relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, another strategically important country for India.
Apart from being India’s largest crude oil supplier accounting for one-fifth of the imports, Saudi Arabia is also India’s fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade reaching $40bn.
Indo-Saudi Arabian ties got a fresh boost during then King Abdullah’s visit to New Delhi in 2006 which resulted in the signing of the “Delhi Declaration”.
The reciprocal visit by Singh in 2010 raised the level of bilateral engagement to “strategic partnership” and the “Riyadh Declaration” signed during the visit captured the spirit of enhanced co-operation in political, economic, security and defence realms.
Jubeir, who arrived in New Delhi on Monday night on a day’s trip as part of the preparations for Modi’s visit, said overall his visit was “extremely successful”.
He said during his meeting with Modi he expressed “our desire to broaden our relations in all areas.”
“Our relations have a strong foundation. India is a very important partner for us,” the minister said.
“We expressed our commitment to further deepen our relations in all areas including energy co-operation.”
Al-Jubeir also referred to the role played by the nearly 3mn-strong expatriate Indian population in the development of Saudi Arabia.
“We have a large Indian population, including doctors, teachers, engineers and managers who have made tremendous contributions to our great nation,” Jubeir said.
He said during his meeting with Swaraj, he discussed Modi’s upcoming visit and the issues that were likely to come up for deliberations.
“We discussed a wide range of issues including the fight against terror and the political dialogue between our two countries.”