Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark on a visit to Saudi Arabia next week at the invitation of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Report informs via Business Standard.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the upcoming April 22-23 visit will be the first visit of the Prime Minister to the country in his third term.
Previously, he has travelled to the Saudi kingdom twice in 2016 and in 2019.
The visit follows the State Visit of 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.
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.
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, the MEA statement said.
The visit of PM Modi reflects the importance India attaches to its bilateral relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
It will provide an opportunity to further deepen and strengthen our multi-faceted partnership, as well as to exchange views on various regional and international issues of mutual interest, according to the MEA.
The Prime Minister's upcoming visit comes at a time when the US and Iran are holding talks with Washington seeking a deal on the latter's nuclear programme and tensions in West Asia with the Hamas-Israeli conflict.
PM Modi's visit also comes ahead of the expected visit of US President Donald Trump to Saudi Arabia next month.
India and Saudi Arabia established diplomatic relations in 1947. In 2010, the bilateral relationship was elevated to a Strategic Partnership.
