RIYADH: Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, India’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, highlighted some of the most important partnerships between the two countries in fields such as medicine, trade, defense, tourism and education, along with the high level of mutual trust that exists.
He pointed out that on Dec. 1, the Saudi Ministry of Health added Covaxin, a COVID-19 vaccine developed in India, to its list of approved vaccines.
"There is a need for international collaboration,” Sayeed told Arab News. “There is a commitment by India, globally, to supply vaccines for those countries who don’t have the facilities to manufacture them.”
He also discussed ways in which Saudi Arabia and India have worked together during the pandemic, giving as an example the fact that in February India sent vaccines to the Saudi market, but that when India was having a difficult time during the second wave of the pandemic, the Kingdom sent vaccine supplies to India.
“More importantly, since India has emerged as a global pharmacy and COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer, with Covaxin, we are in talks with many agencies and our effort is to encourage Indian pharmaceutical companies to come to Saudi Arabia and set up manufacturing here,” the envoy said.
Indian pharmaceutical companies setting up facilities in the Kingdom is in line with the localization aims of Saudi Vision 2030, and will create many job opportunities.
Dr. Ausaf Sayeed
Indian pharmaceutical companies setting up facilities in the Kingdom is in line with the localization aims of Saudi Vision 2030, and will create many job opportunities, he added.
Turning his attention to trade and commerce, Sayeed said that India remained Saudi Arabia’s second-largest trading partner, after China, during the first nine months of 2021. Between April and October, exports from India to the Kingdom were worth $5.2 billion, while trade in the opposite direction was worth $15.6 billion. That put the overall total value of trade between the two countries from April to October this year at $20.8 billion, compared with $22 billion for the whole of the previous financial year.
Saudi Arabia also continues to be the second-largest source of India’s crude oil imports, after Iraq, he added. During the financial year 2020-21, India imported $10.7 billion of crude from the Kingdom, which represented about 18 percent of total crude imports.
In the realm of defense, the ambassador said that Saudi Arabia and India are maritime neighbors and share a common perspective on ensuring that international sea lanes in the region are secure, to ensure the maintenance of a rules-based order and freedom of navigation.
In an effort to help the Kingdom’s tourism industry access and benefit from the Indian market, Syeed said, Saudi Arabia has opened three tourism offices in India — in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai.
Education initiatives by the Indian Embassy in Riyadh, he added, include a collaboration with the Consulate General of India (CGI), and the launch of the Indian Education Forum in August this year to promote and develop educational partnerships between the two nations.
