India, Saudi Arabia sign MoUs for $3 trillion investment

NEW DELHI | Updated: 11 September, 2023 2:54 pm IST

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud ahead of the bilateral meeting

NEW DELHI: After holding a successful G20 Summit, India on Monday signed nearly four dozen memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to boost bilateral trade and ties.

As many as 47 MoUs were signed after bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Monday.

The new deals, covering information and communications technology (ICT), entrepreneurship, chemicals, energy and advanced manufacturing sectors, seek to unlock USD 3 trillion in investment opportunities.

Saudi Arabia is part of the newly-floated India-US Economic Corridor that will prove to be a staunch rival to the likes of China-heralded Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The corridor is set to cover India-Middle East-Europe nations. This will enable a strong and economically motivated alliance to thrive between the member states.

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Heeding the holistic economic, technological and environmental advancements needed for a sustainable global commune, PM Modi and Crown Prince Salman held intensive discussions on a range of subjects at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Badr Al-Badr, Saudi’s deputy minister in investor outreach, said: “Our dynamic transformations have been created under the framework of Vision 2030.”

PM Modi congratulated the Crown Prince on the success of Saudi Vision 2030, where he said, “I would like to thank you for the amount of advancement that has happened in the course of Vision 2030, alongside the developments perceived in the diversification of technology in the field of information technology and commerce.”

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Earlier, Modi had visited Saudi Arabia in October 2019 to lay the foundations of the Strategic Partnership Council.

Prince Salman arrived in New Delhi on Saturday to attend the two-day G20 Summit. He is on an official state visit to India on Monday.

India and Saudi Arabia have historically close and friendly relations with extensive people-to-people contacts. The trade between both countries reached an all-time high of USD 52.75 billion in FY 2022-23. India is Saudi Arabia’s second-largest trading partner whereas Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth-largest trading partner, according to the ministry of external affairs (MEA).