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Strategic decisions likely during Saudi Crown Prince’s bilateral talks with Indian Prime Minister

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Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman would perhaps be finalizing his wardrobe to board the Royal Saudi plane to New Delhi by the time you read this. The Crown Prince is coming on a two-day state visit to India on February 19, but he will also visit Pakistan during his to and fro visit to India and three other countries. This will be the first state visit of Prince Salman to India, who is also the Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Defence Minister of Saudi Arabia. Interestingly, Crown Prince’s visit is being followed by his new-found friend Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel.
During his visit, the Saudi Crown Prince will be holding strategic talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi wherein the two leaders are expected to discuss on a range of issues including energy security, infrastructure, trade and investment and defence. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including ministers, senior officials and leading Saudi businessmen.
This is to be recalled that Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade exceeding USD 25 billion in 2016-17. It supplies about 20 per cent of India’s crude requirements. Prime Minister Modi had visited Saudi Arabia in April 2016 during which the two countries had agreed to further elevate the existing strategic partnership.
About 2.7 million strong and vibrant Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia sends USD 10 billion worth of annual remittances back home. Their positive and well-appreciated contribution in the development of their host country has been an important element of India-Saudi Arabia bilateral engagement.
Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI) has been working aggressively in the recent past to develop India’s trade relations with Saudi Arabia to new height. The recently concluded IndusFood in Delhi, organized by TPCI jointly with Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, saw 27 delegates comprising of leading buyers from Saudi Arabia. This included the likes of Saudi Indian Business Network working under CG Jeddah represented by Mir Ghazanfar Ali Zaki, Nesto represented by Mohammed Meethale Koroth, Batterjee holding company represented by Sohail Ali Fayyad and Al Raya Food Stuff Company represented by Gmail Ismail Osman, among others.
As late as in November 2018, TPCI organized a Food and Agro Buyer-Seller Meet (BSM) in Jeddah and Riyadh, along with Consulate General of India in Jeddah and in association with the Jeddah Chamber. Twenty-five Indian companies from food and agricultural products sector, exporting rice, tea, spices and dry fruits, met the Saudi importers at the BSM which was inaugurated by Md. Noor Rahman Sheikh, Consul General of India in Jeddah and Hassan Ibraheem Dahlan, Secretary General of Jeddah Chamber.
TPCI, on behalf of the ED Division of Ministry of External Affairs also took a delegation of Infra, Housing and Allied sectors to Riyadh during end-November 2018, with an aim tap into the USD 500 billion mega city projects coming up in Saudi Arabia.
H.E. Ahmed Javed, the Hon’ble Indian Ambassador to Riyadh, and the rest of the team at Indian Embassy in Riyadh are extremely helpful in these endeavours and are working ceaselessly to improve the bilateral relations between the two countries.
Saudi Arabia is India’s one of the most important trade partners and is a major FDI partner of India after the UAE in the Gulf region. India’s export to Saudi Arabia was worth USD 5 billion in 2017. The major products exported by India to Saudi Arabia were rice, chemicals, refined petroleum oil and motor vehicles and its parts. India’s import from Saudi Arabia was worth USD 21 billion in 2017, amounting to a huge trade deficit of USD16 billion. The major products imported by India from Saudi Arabia were petroleum products.
India is seeking to reduce the trade deficit by enhancing exports in areas where Saudi Arabia is importing from the world. India exported F&B products worth USD 4.6 billion in 2017. During 2017, India’s total exports in F&B products stood at USD 33 billion while the exports to Saudi Arabia in this sector during the same period stood at only USD 1.43 billion.

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