External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Saudi Arabia will hopefully energise relations between the two countries. Steps have been taken to ease business interaction. The two sides have ratified a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and agreed on extending long-term visas to businessmen. They have agreed to set up an India-Saudi Investment Fund. India’s relationship with the Saudis has hitherto revolved around oil. A quarter of India’s oil imports come from Saudi Arabia. This buyer-seller relationship is now poised to expand to one that will see India participating more actively in oil exploration as well. India is Saudi Arabia’s fourth largest export destination with $9.8 billion worth of exports. Oil accounts for 94 per cent of the exports.
Saudi imports from India are worth $1.6 billion only. India should work on building a market for its goods in Saudi Arabia. In 2006, King Abdullah was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations. That honour was seen as indicative of the new significance Delhi was according to improving relations with the Saudis. However, the gains made during that visit were dissipated with India failing to follow up on the window of opportunity that the King’s visit opened up. Mukherjee’s visit to Saudi Arabia will hopefully remind the Saudis that India remains interested in building a broad-based relationship with the kingdom.
India has hesitated to warm up to the Saudis partly because it is wary of their role in funding religious extremism in the subcontinent. Besides, there is concern in India with Riyadh’s tendency to view its relationship with India through the prism of religion and Pakistan and its consequent backing of Pakistan on India-Pakistan issues. But there has been a change in the way the Saudis are now seeing South Asia. Saudi Arabia has, for instance, expressed support to according observer status to India in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). Delhi must take note of the fact that the Saudis are reaching out to India.
It is decades since an Indian Prime Minister visited Riyadh. This is unfortunate since Saudi Arabia is a key country in the Gulf and a significant actor on the world stage. India’s diplomacy has focused on countries with which it enjoys warm relations rather than those that are important to its interests. Shying away from the Saudis because they are closer to the Pakistanis doesn’t make sense. Rather, for this very reason, India should focus its energies on wooing the Saudis.
