India and Saudi Arabia Agree To Enhance Bilateral Trade – Joint Statement (image-twitter/narendramodi)
A joint statement was issued by India and Saudi Arabia marking the end of Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman’s visit to the country on Monday.
In the statement produced, both the countries recalled historic and friendly relations shared between the two countries and expressed their satisfaction in the expansion and deepening of their bilateral relations across different fields such as political, trade, investment, energy, defence, security, social, cultural and people-to-people ties.
“Both sides praised the burgeoning trade ties and noted that bilateral trade has increased to more than US$ 52 billion in 2022-23, marking a growth of more than 23%”, said the joint statement.
India congratulated Saudi Arabia for hosting 2.4 million Indians residing in the country and also thanked Saudi for facilitating Hajj pilgrimage each year.
In order to advance the economic partnership between the two countries, they have decided to enhance their cooperation in areas .
Saudi affirmed that the Kingdom’s commitment to be a reliable partner and exporter of crude oil supplies to the Republic of India.
Both the sides have agreed to boost joint cooperation in the field of electricity, grid interconnection and, hydrogen and its derivatives.
They have both agreed upon to launch projects to transform oil into petrochemicals and to provide the necessary requirements and support to accelerate the project of West Coast Refinery.
In total, eight pacts were inked for cooperation in a range of areas including investment, digitisation, and saltwater desalinisation.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomed India’s efforts in addressing climate change through initiatives like International Solar Alliance, One Sun-One World-One Grid, Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) and Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE).
In the area of defence sector, India and Saudi Arabia “agreed on continuing to consider possibilities of joint development and production of defence equipment”.
“Both sides called on all States to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorism infrastructure where it exists and bring perpetrators of terrorism to justice swiftly. Both sides stressed the need to prevent access to weapons including missiles and drones to commit terrorist acts against other countries”, said the joint statement.
The two sides agreed on the importance of cooperation to promote ways to ensure the security and safety of waterways and freedom of navigation in line with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
In total, both the countries have decided to make remarkable progress in different fields and aims at achieve comprehensive political solutions to the several political crisis occurring including, Yemen and Afghanistan.
In the conclusion of the visit the crown prince expressed his thanks and appreciation to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the warm reception and hospitality that he had received.
