Why Saudi Arabia is important for India
- The approximately 2 million strong Indian community is the largest expatriate community in the Kingdom and is highly respected due to its sense of discipline, as well as law abiding and peaceful nature.
- Saudi Arabia is an important and reliable source of India’s energy requirements.
- India imports around 18% of its crude oil from Saudi Arabia, making it the 2nd-largest source of crude oil for the country.
- It is also now India’s fourth largest trading partner with bilateral trade at $27.48 billion.
- Saudi investment of around $100 billion is in the pipeline in areas ranging from energy, refining, petrochemicals and infrastructure to agriculture, minerals and mining.
- Saudi Aramco is participating in a major refinery and petrochemical project on India’s west coast.
- Defence, security, trade, culture, education and people-to-people contacts are the important areas of bilateral cooperation with Saudi Arabia
- During his visit to New Delhi in February 2019, the Crown Prince had committed to invest over $100 billion in sectors of priority in India.
Why India is important for Saudi Arabia?
- The contributions made by the Indian community to the development of Saudi Arabia are well acknowledged. Saudi authorities announced an amnesty period between April – November, 2017 during which around 70,000 Indians were issued travel documents to return to India.
- Pragmatism is dictating Saudi posture as the very future of the kingdom’s economic model is at stake.
- Economic reform programs are underway in Saudi Arabia, for which it needs India’s economic as well as technological assistance.
- Saudi Arabia appears to have limited experience in countering threats from groups like Houthi militias
- This is an area where India’s expertise in fighting such threats could be imparted to the Saudi side, by enhancing joint military training programs.
Current Scenario and its analysis:
- There is strong political will in both India and Saudi Arabia to take relations to new heights.
- The current scenario is unlike the Cold War period when India-Saudi Arabia ties were mainly determined by the Pakistani factor.
- For decades, this prevented both New Delhi and Riyadh from discovering the strategic importance of engaging one another.
- Lately, there have been indications that Saudi Arabia is less interested in meddling in India’s internal affairs.
- Alongside the growing politico-economic ties, cooperation in the security realm is significantly progressing.
Challenges for India:
- The politics of the Middle East are complex and multidimensional.
- The Saudi Arabia-Turkey rivalry is one of the dimensions.
- Another dimension is the Saudi Arabia-Iran rivalry.
- India has close relations with both Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, India is yet to work out a way to balance its ties with Iran on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and the United States on the other.
Way Forward:
- Uplifting cooperation in the maritime security domain from the current status would be in the interest of both countries.
- Holding joint naval exercises is important for maritime security cooperation as well as to safeguard international trade via sea routes.
- Space is an important domain where bilateral engagements could be strengthened.
- India could explore the possibility to engage with the newly established Saudi Space Agency.
- The potential areas for next stage of bilateral cooperation could be greater bilateral synergy in Indian infrastructure, agriculture, start-ups, skilling and IT.
- Shifting some labour-intensive establishments from Saudi Arabia to India would serve the respective national priorities by reducing the kingdom’s expatriate population and boosting ‘Make in India’.
