Both challenges and opportunities abound
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir's short trip to New Delhi earlier this week was essentially a step in preparation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the West Asian Kingdom later this month. The latter is expected to be a major boost for bilateral ties with the possibility of an official status upgrade. Currently, India and Saudi Arabia have a strategic partnership that was raised on the Delhi Declaration platform signed during King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud's historic visit to this country in 2006 and formalised during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's reciprocal tour in 2010. Six years later, it is time for another step-up. Currently, the India-Saudi Arabia bilateral stands on three pillars: Oil, trade, and Indian expatriate labour.
Saudi Arabia is India's largest crude oil supplier, accounting for about one-fifth of total imports. Bilateral trade between the two countries reached a healthy $40 billion in 2014-15. As for expatriate labour, there are about 2.96 million Indians working in Saudi Arabia. Together, they make for the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and send back crores of rupees in remittances to India. In recent years, security cooperation has emerged as another prominent factor in the bilateral. This became particularly evident in 2012 when a high-profile suspect in the 26/11 terror case, Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, was handed over to India by Saudi authorities. Since then, cooperation in counter-terrorism has strengthened (yet another terror suspect was deported to India last month).
looking ahead, this is expected to become a focus area in the bilateral, although how it will play out in the long term, given Saudi Arabia’s long-standing friendship with Pakistan, remains to be seen. Apart from counter-terrorism, India is also seeking Saudi support for its Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism at the UN. Another area that is expected to get more attention now is infrastructure investment, wherein the Saudis will be invited to invest in India's large infrastructure projects. This will bring much-needed foreign funding to India while the Saudis will get the opportunity to diversify their oil-heavy economy.
But while there is great potential for the India-Saudi Arabia bilateral, there are areas of concern as well. First is the often appalling condition of Indian workers, most of them semi-skilled, in Saudi Arabia. They are an important element of the Saudi nation-building project, and yet they are not even accorded basic protections. Errant Saudi employers routinely abuse Indian workers and get away with impunity. The Indian Government responds on a case-by-case basis but it needs to urge the Saudi Government for a structural overhaul. The second issue is that of Saudi support for Wahhabi forces around the world. From funding radical madarssas to giving direct financial support to jihadis, Saudi Arabia has played a role in spawning some of the biggest threats to mankind today.