Terming India’s ties with Saudi Arabia as special, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he would like prominent Saudi businesses to partner with India in its development priorities. In a statement made before leaving for three-nation tour on Tuesday night, Modi listed out details of his engagements with Saudi Arabia, Belgium, the European Union and Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Washington. It is expected Modi will hold talks with his Pakistani counter Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of NSS.
“India’s ties with Saudi Arabia are special. Robust people-to-people ties constitute a key component of our engagement. I plan to work with the Saudi leadership to expand and deepen our bilateral relations… We want the prominent Saudi businesses to partner with India’s development priorities. That would be one of the key objectives of the business event planned in Riyadh,” Modi said. Saudi Arabia is India’s 4th largest trading partner, and is also India’s largest crude oil supplier.
Discussions on the regional situation and counter terrorism cooperation will also be high on agenda when Modi and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud hold talks in Riyadh. Apart from his bilateral engagemen with Kig Salman, PM will meet other important members of the Royal family and visit the Masmak Fortress, l&T Workers Residential Complex and TCS All Women IT & ITES Center in Riyadh during his visit from April 2-3. The TCS centre is first BPO operation by any company in the world in Saudi Arabia. It provides employment opportunities to Saudi women whose number has grown from 80 to over 1,000 since its opening.
India and Saudi Arabia also share excellent cooperation between their security agencies particularly on crimes relating to money laundering, terrorist financing, narco terrorism and Abu Jundal (2012), Abu Sufiyan (December 2015) and Abdul Jeddah (February 2016) are some fugitives Saudi agencies have handed over to India in the recent past.
Prior to Riyadh, Modi will be in Brussels (March 30) to meet with the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and attend 13th India-EU Summit. “No words are enough to salute the resilience and spirit of the people of Belgium. We stand shoulder to shoulder with them in the wake of the horrific attacks in Brussels and share the grief of those who lost their loved ones,” PM said.
In Washington on 31st March to participate in the 4th Nuclear Security Summit, Modi said he would meet several world leaders to carry forward the agenda of bilateral cooperation with those nations. The NSS would deliberate on the crucial issue of threat to nuclear security caused by nuclear terrorism and leaders would discuss ways and measure to strengthen the global nuclear security architecture, especially to ensure that non-state actors do not get access to nuclear material.