Moneycontrol | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman likely to visit India in November

Oct 25,2022

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also the country's prime minister, is likely to visit India on November 14, news agency IANS has said, as the two countries look to strengthen trade and economic ties.

The day-long visit would be en route to the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, sources told the news agency.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the invitation to the 37-year-old Crown Prince, Saudi Arabia's de factor ruler, in September through the external affairs minister, NDTV reported.

On October 21, Saudi energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman was in New Delhi where he held a one-on-one meeting with commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal and followed it up with a lunch meeting which was joined by oil minister Hardeep Singh Puri and power Minister RK Singh.

The energy minister said bilateral issues were discussed at the meeting but did not elaborate. He also met Puri separately but it was not immediately known what was discussed.

Trade talks

The November visit of the crown prince is likely to further bilateral trade and economic ties between the two countries. Besides boosting trade and commerce, India and Saudi Arabia are set to discuss an undersea cable project to connect the west coast and West Asia.

Deliberations could also take place on institutionalising the rupee-riyal trade and the introduction of UPI and Rupay cards. The volume of trade between India and Saudi Arabia currently amounts to nearly $43 billion this fiscal year. India aims to increase its exports, as there's a growing market for Indian footwear and textiles in Saudi Arabia, a source told ANI.

India is the world's third largest oil-consuming and importing nation. OPEC supplies two-thirds of all oil that India imports. Saudi Arabia is the country's third-largest supplier of crude oil after Iraq and Russia.

ASEAN view

Diplomatic sources told The Hindu that the Crown Prince’s visit could mean that PM Modi may have to skip the 10-member ASEAN-India summit and 18-member East Asia Summit (EAS) scheduled from November 10-13 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

This is the 30th year of collaboration between India and the ESA nations grouping, making it a symbolic gathering. Sources told The Hindu that Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankar would likely replace the PM in case of stacked schedules. A final decision is yet to be made.