PM Narendra Modi and Saudi king to sign key agreements in meeting today

India and Saudi Arabia are expected to
sign several key agreements during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud today, including one to set up a Strategic
Partnership Council and another to facilitate the entry of Indian workers to
the kingdom.

Modi held meetings on Tuesday morning
with Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, the energy minister, Prince Faisal
bin Farhan Al Saud, the foreign minister, Ahmad bin Sulaiman Alrajhi, the
labour minister, and Abdulrahman bin Abdulmohsen Al Fadley , the environment
minister.

The main agreement will be the one on
the Strategic Partnership Council, first mooted when Crown Prince Mohammed bin
Salman visited India in February. Modi has said the council will mark the
beginning of a “new era of cooperation across sectors”.

The council, which will be chaired by
the Indian prime minister and the Saudi crown prince, will facilitate the
monitoring of progress in the strategic partnership and projects taken up by
the two sides. The body will comprise two mechanisms  one under the foreign ministers to oversee
political and diplomatic relations, and the second under the commerce ministers
to guide commercial and energy ties. Both mechanisms will report to the prime
minister and the crown prince.

Another agreement will be the
integration of India’s e-Migrate and Saudi Arabia e-Thawtheeq portals, which PM
Modi said will “facilitate the process of migration of Indian labour into the
kingdom”. Saudi Arabia is currently home to 2.6 million Indians whose annual
remittances amount to about $11 billion.

Yet another agreement between the Middle
East unit of Indian Oil Corp and Saudi Arabia’s Al Jeri group will focus on
collaboration in the downstream sector, including setting up petrol stations in
the kingdom.

There will also be agreements for the
launch for the launch of India’s RuPay card in Saudi Arabia, which will
facilitate payments and remittances by the large Indian diaspora, and on
training diplomats in the academies of the two countries.

Saudi
Arabia is currently India’s second largest supplier of oil  providing about 18 % of its energy needs and PM Modi said New
Delhi is looking at Saudi investments in downstream oil and gas projects, and
Saudi Aramco’s participation in a major refinery and petrochemical project on
India’s west coast as well as in India’s strategic petroleum reserves.