Saudi Prince Mohammed Bin Salman May Announce Financial Package, Defence Co-Production

New Delhi: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to announce a financial package for India’s National Infrastructure Investment Fund, the energy and housing sectors besides defence co-production, during his visit, which will also focus on jointly fighting terrorism.

Salman was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at New Delhi airport on Tuesday. Modi has broken protocol to receive only a few leaders, among them US President Barack Obama in 2015, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed in 2016 and 2017, Jordan’s King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein in 2018, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2017 and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year.

During the Crown Prince’s two-day visit, India is likely to raise the issue of Pakistan sponsored terrorism with him, officials hinted. The two countries may even issue a strong statement on terrorism and are expected to strengthen their intelligence-sharing mechanism to combat terror globally. Saudi Arabia has been forthcoming in handing over terror suspects in recent years.

India is among eight strategic partners with whom Saudi Arabia intends to deepen engagement in the areas of politics, security, trade and investment and culture. The other partners are China, Japan, South Korea, the US, Germany and two European powers.

Defence is one area where Salman seeks partnership with India. During the 4th Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting in Riyadh last month, both countries explored the possibility of elevating defence engagement with joint production and exercises.

The two sides recently held a high-level meeting to finalise an investment package, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday, officials hinted.

Saudi Arabia aims to widen its economic footprint in India, people familiar with the matter indicated to ET.

Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth-largest trade partner, after China, the US and the United Arab Emirates. India imports about 17% of its crude oil requirements from the kingdom. “We hope to transform this buyer-seller relationship in energy to a broad-based partnership,” said TS Tirumurti, secretary (economic relations) in the ministry of external affairs.

India is also said to be looking forward to greater collaboration in civil aviation, where there is considerable potential for enhanced links, especially in the context of increasing trade, tourism and in enhancing the convenience of travel. India-Saudi trade increased 9.56% to $27.48 billion in 2017-18. Bilateral trade for April-October is provisionally valued at $19.64 billion. Saudi Arabia is the 15th -largest market for India’s exports.

According to the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, there were 322 Indian companies operating as joint ventures or wholly owned entities, worth $1.4 billion, in the kingdom in December 2017.

Source: ET

Image Courtesy:Reuters