New Delhi, Apr 22: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to begin a landmark two-day official visit to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, at the invitation of Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom, Mohammed bin Salman.

This marks Prime Minister Modi’s third visit to the Gulf nation, following his earlier trips to Riyadh in 2016 and 2019.

The visit underscores the deepening strategic ties between India and Saudi Arabia, particularly in the areas of energy cooperation, trade, investment, and regional security.

It follows the State Visit of Prince Mohammed bin Salman to New Delhi in September 2023 to attend the G20 Summit and co-chair the first meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council.

In an exclusive interview with Arab News ahead of his departure, Prime Minister Modi emphasised the importance of Saudi Arabia as a stabilising force in a region often marred by conflict.

“We consider Saudi Arabia a force of positivity and stability in the region. As maritime neighbours, India and Saudi Arabia share a natural interest in safeguarding peace and stability in the region,” the Prime Minister said.

"India and Saudi Arabia share close and friendly ties with a long history of socio-cultural and trade contacts. As strategic partners, the two countries share strong bilateral relations across various areas including political, defence, security, trade, investment, energy, technology, health, education, culture and people-to-people ties," read a statement issued last week, by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

"India's relations with the Kingdom have evolved into a stronger and enduring partnership in the past decade, expanding into many strategic domains, with growing investment commitments, broadening of defence cooperation and intensive high-level exchanges across sectors," it added.

The MEA stated that the visit of Prime Minister Modi reflects the importance India attaches to its bilateral relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and it will provide an opportunity to further deepen and strengthen the multi-faceted partnership, as well as to exchange views on various regional and international issues of mutual interest.

With 'Neighbourhood First' continuing to be the guiding vision for the Modi government's foreign policy, the Prime Minister has mentioned before how India's relations with Saudi Arabia are one of the most important bilateral relationships in the extended neighbourhood.

(IANS)

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