Prime Minister Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: From purely a buyer-seller relationship, India and Saudi Arabia are now moving towards a closer strategic partnership that will include Saudi investments in downstream oil and gas projects, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he began his official visit to the kingdom.

“During this visit to Saudi Arabia, we are going to sign an agreement on a Strategic Partnership Council, which will begin a new era of cooperation across sectors. Our ties across various dimensions such as trade, investment, security and defence cooperation are robust and deep, and will only strengthen further,” Modi said in an interview to Arab News .

In his keynote address at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Riyadh, Modi listed the attractiveness of the Indian economy and invited global businessmen to invest in the country.

“Political predictability, stability of policies and a large diverse market will ensure that your investment in India will be most profitable,” Modi said promising that he and his team will help investors.

He said the government had undertaken major reforms and would continue to take measures to boost growth. He said the roadmap for $5 trillion economy is ready. The PM highlighted India’s sharp improvement in the World Bank ’s ‘Ease of Doing’ business ranking where it had reached to 63rd position from 142 within five years.

In his interview, the PM said India imports around 18% of its crude oil from the kingdom, making it the second-largest source of crude oil for the country.

“We value the kingdom’s vital role as an important and reliable source of our energy requirements. We believe that stable oil prices are crucial for the growth of the global economy, particularly for developing countries,” said Modi, during a visit that highlights the government’s success in deepening ties and ensuring Riyadh does not back Pakistan on issues affecting India.

“Saudi Aramco is participating in a major refinery and petrochemical project on India’s west coast. We are also looking forward to the participation of Aramco in India’s strategic petroleum reserves,” the PM said. Modi said one of the major areas of cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia is in investments in infrastructure projects. “During his visit to India in February 2019, the crown prince had indicated an intent to invest in excess of $100 billion in India across various sectors,” he said.

“We welcome greater Saudi investments in our infrastructure projects, including the smart cities programme. We also welcome Saudi interest in investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund,” said the PM.

Modi said Asian powers like India and Saudi Arabia share similar security concerns in their neighbourhood and expressed satisfaction about the two countries’ cooperation, particularly in the field of counter-terrorism, security and strategic issues. “We have a joint committee on defence cooperation that holds regular meetings. We have identified a number of areas of mutual interest and cooperation in the field of defence and security,” he said.

“We are also in the process of entering into agreements on security cooperation, collaboration in defence industries, and also agreed to hold a comprehensive security dialogue mechanism between the two countries,” said Modi.



In Video: India good destination for investment: PM Narendra Modi at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative Forum in Riyadh