Prime Minister Modi and Saudi prince Bin Salman hold high-level meeting after G 20 summit

NEW DELHI: The meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Al Saud is scheduled for today. They are expected to discuss various issues including trade, the economy, defence and cultural cooperation. The Saudi Prince arrived in India for a three-day visit that began with the G20 summit.

The high-level meeting took place at Hyderabad House in Delhi. The two leaders are co-chairing the first meeting of the Strategic Partnership Council, a bilateral agreement signed between the two countries in Riyadh in 2019. The leaders of the Ministerial Committees within the Strategic Partnership Council including the political, security, social and cultural cooperation committee and the Economic and Investment Cooperation Committee will review the progress during the meeting.

Additionally, the meeting will cover a wide range of topics including politics, security, defence, trade, economy, culture and people-to-people relations. They will also discuss national and international issues of mutual interest. India and Saudi Arabia have a long history of friendly relations.

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached an all-time high of 52.75 billion dollar in the financial year 2022-23 according to a government release. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Saudi Arabia in 2019, he mentioned the existence of a joint committee on defence cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia which meets regularly. Modi also highlighted the identification of many areas of mutual interest and cooperation in the defence and security sectors between the two countries.