New Delhi: India and Saudi Arabia will sign five MoUs during Crown Prince Mohammad-bin Salman’s visit starting Tuesday. “Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is arriving in India on 19th February.
Our relation got a huge boost when PM visited Saudi Arabia in 2016. Since then there has been an intensification of relation,” TS Tirumurti, Secretary (Economic Relations) in Ministry of External Affairs said.
“As part of this engagement, we’re finalising setting up of strategic partnership council between the two countries at ministerial level, we’re confident it’ll give greater thrust to our partnership and take forward our discussions in focused and action-oriented manner,” Tirumurti added.
During Salman’s visit, talks on investment of $44 billion by Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in Ratnagiri Refinery project is also likely to take place, news agency ANI said quoting sources.
The Crown Prince, who is preparing to head to New Delhi from Islamabad, has inked at least seven MoUs and agreement to make investments of worth USD 20 billion.
“There is no comparison. Investment in Pakistan is a bailout and investment in India is in a robust economy growing at 7 per cent. Saudi has ranked India as the 8th strategic partner,” ANI added.
On Monday, Saudi Arabia vowed to try and ‘de-escalate’ tensions between India and Pakistan in the wake of the deadly Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The terror attack happened when a suicide bomber blew up an explosive-laden vehicle near a convoy of CRPF buses in Pulwama district on Thursday, killing 41 CRPF soldiers.
(With inputs from ANI and PTI)
Source: Zee News