India’s EAM meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman
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Roshan Amiri
- . September 12, 2022
- . Update: September 13, 2022 3:04 pm
In a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar presented the prince with a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On Saturday, Jaishankar began a three-day tour of Saudi Arabia. The External Affairs Minister of India is making his first trip to the Kingdom.
In Jeddah, Jaishanker met the Crown Prince, often known as MBS. According to the official Saudi Press Agency, visiting Foreign Minister Jaishankar presented a letter from Prime Minister Modi to Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Deputy Prime Minister, during a meeting at the Crown Prince’s office in Jeddah.
The most recent regional and global developments as well as the measures being taken to address them were reviewed at the Jaishankar-MBS meeting, it added. Additionally, the potential to improve bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and India was discussed.
“I informed him of our bilateral relations’ progress and thanked him for sharing his vision of our ties,” Jaishankar tweeted following the meeting.
Earlier on Sunday in Riyadh, Jaishankar met with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, for “warm and fruitful” discussions in which they addressed current international political and economic concerns and decided to collaborate closely in the G-20 and multilateral organisations.
They served as co-chairs of the inaugural ministerial gathering of the PSSC, which was constituted within the framework of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council. At the Prince Saud Al Faisal Institute of Diplomatic Studies in Riyadh, Jaishankar also spoke to diplomats.
As a result of their long-standing economic and sociocultural links, India and Saudi Arabia have amicable and cordial relations. India’s fourth-largest trading partner is Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia supplies more than 18% of India’s imports of crude oil. The value of bilateral trade during FY22 (April–December) was $29.28 billion. India’s imports from Saudi Arabia during this time were worth $22.65 billion, while exports to Saudi Arabia were worth $6.63 billion.
According to the Indian embassy in Riyadh, there are 2.2 million Indians living in Saudi Arabia, making them the largest foreign population there. Even throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the senior officials of both nations maintained close communication, according to a statement from the External Affairs Ministry.
