Will undersea cables soon link India’s Gujarat coast with Saudi Arabia?

Saudi Arabia’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Monday said that Saudi Arabia has many plans in the energy sector in close coordination with India and these will come to light soon.

The Minister made the statement while speaking to ANI on the sidelines of the two-day 2nd edition of the Saudi Media Forum which began in the capital Riyadh with over 1,500 media professionals and industry leaders from Arab and foreign countries joining to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the media industry. “We have so many plans in the energy sector with India and we will see it very soon,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told ANI when asked about Saudi Arabia’s plan in the energy sector with India.

Prince Salman’s statement came four months after he visited India, and met top Indian officials as the Kingdom strengthens its energy ties with the second-largest Asian economy.

The energy minister, who visited the New Delhi for a day in October last year, held talks with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh, Electricity Minister Raj Kumar Singh, and several Indian business leaders.

There are talks that the Gujarat coast in India could soon link up to the Middle East with deep sea cables, creating a renewable energy grid as Saudi Arabia and India expand their energy ties.

Earlier in September, Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to India Saleh bin Eid Al-Hussaini vowed to boost and strengthen relations between Riyadh and New Delhi during his tenure.

Al-Hussaini had said that the move would help in accelerating the growth of the mutual and beneficial partnership between India and Saudi Arabia and strengthen the friendly bond between the people of our countries.

The partnership between Saudi Arabia and India reached new heights when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited New Delhi in February 2019. In October 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Kingdom, which resulted in the two nations establishing the Strategic Partnership Council.

In September, Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar had said that India and Saudi Arabia are important players in the emerging multipolar world order, and there are several areas in which both countries are working together.

He had also said that India and Saudi Arabia are major economies and play an important role in shaping the global economy.

India and Saudi Arabia are substantial economic partners, with trade being valued at approximately $42.86 billion during the fiscal year (April 2021 to March 2022), the Minister had said.

Energy plays a crucial role in the trade ties between India and Saudi Arabia as New Delhi imports about 18 and 22 percent of its crude oil and liquefied petroleum gas demands, respectively, from the Kingdom.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and India have been historically strong for several decades. Indians constitute the largest community of foreign workers in the Kingdom and one of their home country’s biggest sources of inward remittances.

Saudi Arabia’s trade relationship with India was majorly confined to energy in the initial years, but now, both nations have widened their ties into other fields, including security, investment, health, food security, and culture.

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