On the eve of India hosting the G20 session at Delhi, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud was welcomed as a state guest by India. The visit followed a personal invitation by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Crown Prince visited India from 9th to 11th September. This is the second state visit of the Crown Prince, the first visit being in 2019.
During the visit, both leaders presided over the first ever India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) summit-level meeting. The SPC was set up during PM Modi’s visit to Riyadh in 2019 to steer the India-Saudi relations forward. In 2010, during the visit of then Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the relationship between both countries assumed a strategic level. The Summit level meeting of SPC is an important step as both countries look to further strengthen their economies using modern sustainable technology. According to MEA, the Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) has two sub-committees – I) Committee on Political, Security, Social and Cultural Cooperation; and II) Committee on Economy and Investments. Under each of these sub-committees, there are four levels of engagements including Summit, Ministerial, Senior Official level, and Joint Working Groups. During the Summit, the delegations discussed topics including political, security, defence, trade and economic, cultural and people-to-people ties. The MEA mentioned that both leaders discussed the regional and international issues of mutual interest.
India’s ties with Saudi Arabia have grown by leaps and bounds in recent decades. It is not without reason that Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the Saudi Kingdom as one of the most important strategic partners of India today. In 2022, the bilateral trade between both countries crossed US$ 52 billion and the Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal announced that both countries look to double the trade to over US$ 100 billion soon. During an event at GIFT city in Gujarat, Minister Goyal also added India will serve as a food security provider to Saudi Arabia which in return will assure energy and fertilizer security for the country. Notably, Saudi Arabia is India’s 4th largest trading partner, while India is the second largest trading partner of the Arab Kingdom.
India-Saudi cultural ties have also gained strength along with strategic ties. The 2.2 million Indian community in Saudi Arabia which is slightly less than a tenth of the Saudi population. Despite being a Muslim country, Indian culture including yoga is widely celebrated in the Kingdom, including 1.75 Lakh Indian Muslims who go to Hajj each year.
Both countries have seamlessly contributed to the national development of each other. During the COVID pandemic, India provided 4.5 million Covishield vaccines, whereas the Kingdom supported Indians with liquid Oxygen during the subsequent waves. Riyadh has been supporting Delhi in its call against state-aided terrorism. During the recent visit of Crown Prince, both sides called against “use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorism infrastructure where it exists and bring perpetrators of terrorism to justice swiftly.” This is a serious strategic objective of the Indian government and by agreeing to it, Saudis showed that they agree on the challenges faced by India regarding terrorism.
Prior to the state visit of Prince MBS, the initiative of IMEC or India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor was launched on the sidelines of the G20 Summit at Delhi. The initiative was launched on 10th September through an MoU by the governments of the United States, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union. It is thus far one of the most ambitious trade corridors that has been launched on a multilateral effort with a primary focus of connecting Europe-Middle East-India. In the future, it can become a complement to the busy Suez Canal thus aiding international trade.
The visit of the Crown Prince has particularly helped in putting the spotlight on India-Saudi ties which have the unique potential to anchor both ends of the Arabian Sea in stability.
