India Saudi Arabia Set Up councile Of High strategic Partnership

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SAUDI ARABIA’S NEED

Under its Vision – 2030,
Saudi Arabia has selected eight countries for forging strategic partnership. These include India, China, the UK, the United States, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan

India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer, imports 83 per cent of its oil needs. Saudi Arabia is its second biggest supplier after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonnes of crude oil to India in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonnes of oil.
India, the 6th largest economy in the world and the 3rd largest energy consumer after the US and China, buys some 200,000 tonnes of LPG every month from Saudi Arabia.

The 2.6 million strong Indian community in Saudi Arabia is the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom. (Saudi Arabia’s population 3 crore 26 lakh).
India’s relations with Saudi Arabia have been on an upswing over the last few years. India’s bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia was at USD 27.48 billion in 2017-18, making Saudi Arabia its fourth largest trading partner.

PM Modi was extended a ceremonial welcome on arrival & greeted by the Governor of Riyadh HRH Prince Faisal bin Bandar Al Saud on his oneday trip to Saudi Arabia

In history there have been four visits to Saudi Arabia by an Indian Prime Minister: Jawaharlal Nehru (1955), Indira Gandhi (1982), Manmohan Singh (2010) and Narendra Modi (2016) .
(fifth one being PM Modi’s visit).

PM Narendra Modi and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
The two leaders, further, re-affirmed their commitment to strengthen the strategic partnership between the two nations, which was envisaged in the ‘Riyadh Declaration’ that was signed in March 2010. PM Narendra Modi also held bilateral discussions with Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

This is a major development since Saudi Arabia is now only the fourth country with whom India has an intergovernmental mechanism headed by the prime minister. Germany, Russia and Japan are the other three.
After the United Kingdom, France, and China, India is the fourth country to form a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabia

India’s relationship with Saudi Arabia is one of the most important bilateral relationship in our extended neighbourhood. The signing of the agreement on a Strategic Partnership Council will begin a new era of cooperation: PM Modi
Indian Prime Minister and Saudi Crown Prince will be meeting every few years now at Summit Level as part the strategic partnership council

India and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday signed 12 MoUs and agreements in key sectors including defence industries collaboration, renewable energy, security cooperation and civil aviation.
An MoU was inked on cooperation in the field of renewable energy between the Saudi Ministry of Energy and India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
Two separate agreements on security cooperation and civil aviation cooperation were signed between the two sides.
An MoU was signed for cooperation in the field of combating illicit trafficking and smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and chemical precursors.
An MoU was signed between Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited (ISPRL) and Saudi Aramco between the two sides.
Moreover, an MoU was inked for cooperation between National Stock Exchange (NSE) and the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).
An MoU was signed between National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and Saudi Payments.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Limited signed an agreement with Saudi Aramco to lease part of the 2.5 million-tonne Padur storage in Karnataka.
India has already built 5.33 million tons of underground reserves in three locations, which can meet about 10 days of the country’s oil needs. Delhi plans two new reserves with a combined capacity of 6.5 million tons, sufficient to cover for an additional 12 days.

Saudi Aramco is also expected to partner in Modi government’s mega project, the West Coast Refinery, worth over Rs 4 lakh crore.
The refinery is to be set up at Raigad in Maharashtra where the state government has initiated a move for the acquisition of around 600 acres of land. The project, expected to be completed within five years, will not only fulfil the country’s future oil requirements, but also make India one of the top global players in the refinery sector.

The Indian PM and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince discussed various regional and global issues of mutual interest and reiterated their rejection of all forms of interference in the internal affairs of the nations.

India and Saudi Arabia both stressed on the need for achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Palestine based on relevant UN resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative. The leaders expressed hope that the peace resolution will guarantee the rights of the people of Palestinian and lead to the establishment of their independent state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.

The two leaders agreed on the importance of bilateral engagement in promoting ways to secure the waterways in both the Indian Ocean region and the Gulf, from any threat that may endanger the interests of the two countries including their national security.

Stressing that terrorism and extremism threaten all nations and societies, the two sides rejected any attempt to link it to any particular religion, race or culture. They also rejected all acts of terrorism and highlighted the importance of preventing access to weapons such as drones and missiles to commit terrorist acts against other nations.

The Future Investment Initiative (FII) is an annual investment forum held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss trends in the world economy and investment environment.