Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia starting Monday. The two nations will witness the signing of a dozen agreements including defence procurement, civil aviation and trade.
Apart from this, the two-day visit may witness the formation of the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council. The council will be chaired by PM Modi for the Indian side and King Mohammad Bin Salman Al Saud will head the Saudi side.
The prime responsibility of the council will be to monitor the progress of the strategic partnership between the two nations.
The council will have two parallel mechanisms under it. One, it will look after political and diplomatic ties, second will look after commercial and energy ties.
While the first mechanism will be headed by foreign minister S Jaishankar and his Saudi counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, the second will be looked after by commerce minister Piyush Goyal and his counterpart Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi.
Under its Vision-2030, Saudi Arabia has selected eight countries – India, China, the UK, the United States, France, Germany, South Korea and Japan to enhance strategic partnership. If the agreement materlises, then India will be the fourth nation to establish strategic partnership council with Saudi.
Read also: Modi meets Saudi Prince, builds a 'strategic partnership'
