Growing India–Saudi Strategic Ties
 

India and Saudi Arabia share a bilateral relationship that has grown strong and has witnessed remarkable stride in the last decade.
 

This relationship has been nourished by growing economic partnership, energy cooperation, security and defense, burgeoning trade relations and health cooperation.
 

As India celebrated its 72nd Republic Day on January 26, 2021, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to India Saud Mohammed Al-Sati says that the current decade will be unprecedented for our strategic partnership that shall not only benefit our two counties but also for the MENA region and South Asian region.
 

India-Saudi ties reflect the centuries old economic and socio-cultural relations. The establishment of diplomatic relations in 1947 was followed by high-level visits from both sides. King Saud visited India in 1955 and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited the Kingdom in 1956. The visit of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to Saudi Arabia in 1982 further consolidated the bilateral relations.
 

The year 2019 marked the start of a new era in bilateral relations between India and Saudi Arabia with the visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to India in February. Later in the year, a ‘Strategic Partnership Council’ between the two countries was signed during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Riyadh in October, 2019. It was a landmark move which would solidify ties and boost cooperation between both nations. A number of agreements were signed in the fields of security cooperation, defense industry collaboration, civil aviation, renewable energy, diplomatic institutions, anti-drug trafficking, strategic petroleum reserves, and small and medium enterprises.
 

Bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and India has increased significantly in the last two years from $27 billion in 2018-19 to $34 billion in 2019-2020. The Saudi Arabian Investment Authority issued 41 project licenses to Indian investors in Saudi Arabia in Q1, 2020; while Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Authority has recently announced an investment of $1.3 billion in Reliance Retail and $1.5 billion in Reliance Jio, amongst other investments. Saudi Aramco is committed to investing in India’s energy sector. As a major step toward this, the company is investing in $44 billion refinery-cum-petrochemical project on Maharashtra coast.
 

Al-Sati says this upward trajectory in Saudi-India ties shall continue as they tap into the potential of the opportunities created in the Kingdom by the Saudi Vision 2030 to transform their society and diversify economy, and the breakthroughs of India’s ambitious plans of becoming a $5 trillion economy.

Pallavi Agrawal

Editor

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