Premier’s visit will add new dimension to Saudi-India links

Indo-Saudi relations have developed over the last several decades, marked by a smooth ride during the course of their evolution.

But, these age-old relations will undergo a new paradigm shift following the two-day visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as several key agreements are expected to be signed between the two countries.
No doubt, the visit of Modi will herald a new era of relations between the two allies.
Even today, the two countries enjoy a candid, cordial and strong ‘strategic’ relations.
His visit, which comes nearly six years after last prime ministerial visit to Riyadh, assumes significance given the current regional situation and strained ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
Apart from being India’s largest supplier of crude oil, accounting for almost one fifth of its need, Saudi Arabia is also India’s fourth largest trading partner.
The Kingdom has the largest Indian diaspora, whose number exceeds 2.9 million today.
In this context, Modi’s visit to Saudi Arabia will essentially concentrate on several issues but mainly with two objectives.
One is to find ways and means of strengthening joint anti-terrorism plans and programs and the second is to open vistas of trade and commerce between the two countries with large space for private enterprise.
Moreover, strengthening India’s relations with the Kingdom will also have an impact on the future course of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), its ties with India, and even with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which comprises all Islamic states.
Its further praiseworthy and noteworthy that India is willing to take strong diplomatic steps to ensure greater cooperation with the Kingdom and the Gulf states.
The two countries have built strategic geopolitical and defense ties over the years, and have a substantial approach in the area of maritime cooperation aimed at mutual benefit besides augmenting other military capabilities.
Saudi Arabia is also part of India’s Indian Ocean Naval Symposium initiative, which aims to increase maritime cooperation among navies of the world.
In 2014, the Kingdom and India signed a memorandum of understanding on defense cooperation, which allows exchange of defense-related information, military training and education as well as cooperation in areas varying from hydrography and security to logistics.
While there have been frequent goodwill visits by the Indian Navy ships to the ports of Jeddah and Jubail, in 2015 for the first time ever, a flying contingent of the Indian Air Force, on its way back from the UK, visited the King Fahd Air Base in Taif.
In fact, the strategic relations between Saudi Arabia and India, built upon the foundations of respect, trust, and equality; have very few parallels.
In a world undergoing a significant economic shift, the Kingdom and India also share a common goal in ensuring sustainable growth, stability, prosperity and above all peace and security.
The curtain raiser to the dawn of these relations was the historic 17-day visit of late King Saud bin Abdulaziz to India from Nov. 26 to Dec. 10, 1955, which laid the foundation of the bilateral ties.
In reciprocation, Prime Minister Pandit Jawaherlal Nehru followed it up with a return visit to the Kingdom in 1956 and received a warm welcome. He was hailed as the “messenger of peace”.
These visits were then followed by frequent exchange of visits from both sides during the last four decades.
The political interactions were also backed by a strong desire for economic relations and commercial exchanges.
Today, from the traditional export of foodstuff and textiles at one end to IT, telecommunications, transportation, security, education, construction, consultancy services, science and technology at the other, they cover a board spectrum of visible and invisible exports on the Indian side.
Similarly, Saudi exports have evolved from mere shipment of oil to petrochemicals and other derivatives, marking the trajectory of growth from the conventional to strategic relations.
The defining moment was the addition of a joint front against terrorism into these equations, and also a defense pact signed by the Kingdom and India a couple of years back.
These are in addition to several agreements endorsed by the two countries since then.
According to a report published by Indian embassy, the Kingdom and India have signed about 19 agreements/MoUs during the last 10 years. 
The two countries signed the Delhi Declaration in 2006, which laid the roadmap for bilateral cooperation.
The Delhi Declaration, which also provided the framework for cooperation in all fields of mutual interest, was signed during the visit of King Abdullah to India.
The king then was the chief guest at the republic day celebrations in New Delhi.
Then comes the Riyadh Declaration, which was signed during the visit of the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010.
The Riyadh Declaration, in fact, raised the level of interaction to ‘strategic partnership’ in the political, economy, security and defense realms.
The two countries also have had in place an MoU for foreign office consultations, an MoU for Joint Business Council, an accord for investment protection, an MoU for combating crime, an extradition treaty, an agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners, and an agreement for cooperation in peaceful use of outer space.
On political front, the Kingdom and India have had very cordial relations. After the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1947, the first high level contact was the visit of King Saud to India in 1955.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s visited Riyadh in April 1982.
Her visit paved the way for better relations and heralded a new era in Indo-Saudi relations as no Indian prime minister or high dignitary had been to Saudi Arabia since Nehru visited the Kingdom in 1956.
The only exception was the visit by Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, president of India, who attended King Faisal’s funeral in March 1975.
This was the first time that an Indian president personally represented India at the funeral of another head of state, since the practice had been to depute the vice president or senior cabinet minister.
It indicated the importance India attached to relations with the Kingdom even at that time.
The highest point of political interaction however came when Modi met Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman in November last year on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Turkey.
In the field of trade and commerce, the two countries have forged closer ties.
In fact, India’s trade with Riyadh has increased from $3.7 billion to $40 billion during the last 15 years.
Economic relations between the two countries have shown a remarkable growth with bilateral trade registering a three-fold increase during the last few years.
To this end, it must be noted that Saudi Arabia is India’s 4th largest trade partner.
These figures are among the highest between India and an Islamic country (Saudi Arabia). It is further important to note here that the Kingdom is the destination for 3.6 percent of India’s global exports.
This progressively growing trade is backed by the presence of a large number of Indian companies in the Kingdom and vice versa.
Indian companies, both public and private, have successfully undertaken numerous lucrative projects in the Kingdom.
There is no doubt that the economic and commercial content in India-Saudi/GCC relationship is growing and has more potential to expand for mutual benefit.
Indian leaders have been urging Saudi investors to invest their surplus liquidity in infrastructure sector in India.
To sum up, as India’s economy rapidly grows, its need for secure and reliable oil supplies also grows.
Undoubtedly, this has been one of the major and the most crucial motivating factors behind enhancing ties with Saudi Arabia.
India and the Kingdom have also agreed to increase strategic cooperation, although mutual convergence is yet to be seen.
The two countries share a common desire for political stability and security in the Gulf region and in the extended neighborhood.
There is great potential for cooperation in the field of security and defense policy between India and Saudi Arabia. Not only India has signed security and defense cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman, but Indian Navy also has growing cooperation, including naval exercises, with naval forces of some GCC states.
Last but not the least, there is also a religious component to the growing relations between India and the Kingdom.
India, home of about 200 million Muslims, sends one of the largest contingents of pilgrims for Haj every year.
About 140,000 Indian Muslims performed haj in 2015.
This is in addition to a large number of Muslims, who come for Umrah throughout the year. They visit the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.
Thus, India and Saudi Arabia have over the last 15 years taken a number of political, economic, diplomatic and security initiatives, which have cemented their bilateral relations more than at any point in recent times.