India-Saudi Arabia to sign Agreement on Strategic Partnership Council

PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. He is visiting the country to attend the third Future Investment Initiative and to hold bilateral discussion with King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud. PM will sign minimum of 12 agreements during his visits in areas such as defence, civil aviation, infrastructure, non-renewable energy sector, etc.

Apart from this, PM Modi will sign a bilateral “Strategic Partnership Council” pact. India is the fourth country with which Saudi Arabia is signing the pact with. The three other countries are UK, France and China.

Strategic Partnership Council

• The Council will include multiple sections from NITI Aayog, External Affairs Ministry and counterpart organizations from Saudi Arabia
• The council is to be led by Mr Modi and King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
• The Council will have two parallel tracks
  • Political, Security, Culture and society headed by both countries foreign ministers
  • Economy and Investment headed by India’s Commerce and Industry minister and Saudi Arabia’s energy minister.

Significance

• The visit gains its importance as the visit comes three months after India ended the special status of Kashmir.
• The Council being formed will open era of cooperation across various sectors like security, Trade, investment, defence and cooperation.
• There are over 8 million Indian diaspora in the region.

Month: Current Affairs - October, 2019