Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to visit India: Energy security, strategic partnership to be focus
By: Huma Siddiqui | Published: February 5, 2019 4:14 PM
About 3.2 million strong and vibrant Indian community sending $10 billion of annual remittances back home forms the largest expatriate group in Saudi Arabia. Their positive and well-appreciated contribution in the development of their host country has been an important element of India-Saudi Arabia bilateral engagement.
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Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. (Reuters)
Issues including energy security, strategic partnership, space cooperation, deepening of trade and economic relations will be a focus of talks when Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman comes on his maiden visit to India in the third week of this month.
Highly placed sources confirmed to Financial Express Online: “The Saudi Crown Prince is likely to be here on February 20, though the dates have not been firmed up yet. And energy security is expected to be the focus of talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the visiting prince.”
New Delhi is also expected to urge the Saudi businesses to participate in the flagship schemes of India like “Startup India” and “Smart city projects”.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is a major energy security partner of India. The discussions during the visit are expected to help India in getting more investments from the Gulf country especially in the infrastructure sector as well as help in issues related to country’s increasing energy requirement since there are concerns in New Delhi arising out of political unrest in Venezuela, US sanctions on Iran. Washington’s sanctions call for countries to stop importing oil from Iran; however, the Trump administration has given temporary relief to India on this matter.
The visit is coinciding with important developments in the West Asian region where according to reports the war in Syria is coming to an end, and the Arab world is looking for solutions to end the war in Yemen.
In an earlier analysis, Anil Trigunayat, former Ambassador to Jordan, Libya and Malta had pointed out that, “Russia is trying to regain its influence in the Middle East after a virtual carte blanche by the Trump administration’s withdrawal from Syria. In the meantime, Saudi Arabia and UAE have already created a new strategic and military alliance.”
From India’s point of view, the visit comes months after the Crown Prince had sought dialogue between India and Pakistan. Also, reports have indicated that the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to visit days ahead of Prince’s visit.
The Kingdom had chosen India as the `Guest of Honour’ in 2018 during its major annual cultural event Janadriya Festival when external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj participated in the festival.
As has been reported earlier, major infra companies from India had visited the Gulf Country, under the umbrella of Ministry of External Affairs (Economic Diplomacy Division), to explore possible contracts and investment opportunities in the $500 billion futuristic mega-city Project “NEOM” and the Red Sea Tourism Project.
These infrastructure projects are part of the mega development project ‘Vision 2030’, launched by the Kingdom that is planning to shift from an oil-based economy to an industrial manufacturing-based productive economy.
The Indian investments in Saudi Arabia amounting to $ 1.5 billion are more compared to the nominal investments of $ 16 million made by them here. Saudi Arabia is the fourth largest trading partner for India with bilateral trade exceeding $ 25 billion in 2016-17. As India’s largest supplier of crude oil, Saudi Arabia accounts for about 20% of the country’s total annual imports. The major products imported by India from Saudi Arabia were crude petroleum oil, petroleum gas, acrylic alcohols and chemical such as the polymer of ethylene.
About 3.2 million strong and vibrant Indian community sending $10 billion of annual remittances back home forms the largest expatriate group in Saudi Arabia. Their positive and well-appreciated contribution in the development of their host country has been an important element of India-Saudi Arabia bilateral engagement. Among the GCC, Saudi Arabia is a major FDI partner of India after UAE. India’s export to Saudi Arabia was worth $ 5 billion in 2017. The major products exported by India to Saudi Arabia were rice, chemicals such as cyclical hydrocarbons, refined petroleum oil and motor vehicles and its parts.
Source: financialexpress.com