NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to India Saleh bin Eid Al-Hussaini has vowed to boost and strengthen relations between Riyadh and New Delhi during his tenure in the South Asian country, as officials and peoples of the two countries celebrated the 92nd Saudi National Day in the Indian capital.
Saudi Arabia celebrated its National Day on Sept. 23 to commemorate the renaming of the Kingdom of Nejd and Hejaz to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by royal decree of King Abdulaziz Al-Saud in 1932.
The Saudi embassy in India hosted a National Day event in New Delhi on Friday, the first such festivity held since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Indian Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia was the chief guest during the occasion, which also saw other Indian officials in attendance.
Al-Hussaini, who presented his credentials to Indian President Droupadi Murmu earlier this month, has vowed to deepen Saudi-Indian ties during his tenure.
“This would be my endeavor to consolidate and accelerate the growth of our mutual and beneficial partnership and strengthen the friendly bond between the people of our countries,” Al-Hussaini said during his speech at the Saudi National Day event in New Delhi.
Saudi-Indian ties reached new highs when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited New Delhi in February 2019. In October that year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Riyadh at the invitation of King Salman, which saw the two nations establishing the Strategic Partnership Council.
Al-Hussaini, who described the crown prince’s New Delhi trip as a “landmark visit,” said that high-level engagements that year had “marked a new chapter in bilateral relations.”
India has been seeking to enhance its strategic partnership with the Kingdom since, as well as cooperation on international platforms, with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visiting Saudi Arabia earlier in September.
The India-Saudi strategic partnership is focused on four areas: Political issues, security, socio-cultural relations and defense cooperation.
Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trade partner, after the US, China and the UAE, with bilateral trade worth $42.8 billion in the 2021-22 fiscal year. Energy also plays an important role in their ties, with New Delhi importing about 18 and 22 percent of its crude oil and LPG demands, respectively, from the Kingdom.