Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, is visiting India for the high-profile G20 Summit. This will be his second visit to New Delhi after the first one in February 2019, when he announced investment opportunities worth $100 billion in India.
After attending the G20 Summit, the Crown Prince (who is also referred to as MBS) will stay back in India for a state visit at the invitation of PM Modi. This assumes significance as during the state visit he will be accorded the highest honours, including a guard of honour at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
Salman took the reign of Saudi Arabia, a conservative kingdom, in June 2017. During his time so far, India and Saudi's relationship has thrived despite trouble due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and China's assertive foreign policy in India's neighbourhood.
Mohammed bin Salman, the son of Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, has been hailed for a series of reforms he carried out after taking over as the Crown Prince. As per the Saudi govt, the kingdom, under his watch, implemented a "record number of reforms" in one year.
In 2019, the World Bank said Saudi Arabia under Salman carried out a record number of business reforms in the past year, earning the country a spot in the top 10 global business climate improvers.
Ever since he took over as PM, Modi has made efforts to strengthen India's relations with the Gulf countries considering trade, especially oil imports and the huge Indian diaspora there. He visited Saudi Arabia in 2016 and 2019. He was awarded Saudi's highest civilian award in 2016.
During his first visit to New Delhi, Salman said Saudi Arabia saw a huge investment opportunity in India. PM Modi welcomed his announcement to invest in the areas of energy, refining, petrochemicals, and infrastructure worth in excess of $100 billion.
In June this year, Saudi's Prince Fahad bin Mansour Al-Saud hailed India for doing a summit for startups as part of G20. "India has done a great job in putting together StartUp20."
In June this year, PM Modi thanked Mohammed bin Salman for Saudi Arabia's 'excellent support' during the evacuation of Indian nationals from Sudan via Jeddah in April.
Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trade partner. The two-way trade in 2021-22 was $42.6 billion, while the kingdom provided 18 per cent of India’s oil imports, according to Talmiz Ahmad, former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia.