India and Saudi Arabia have vowed to substantially boost investments and their trade ties as Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited cash-rich Saudi firms to invest in infrastructure and form joint ventures for oil exploration. Saudi Oil giant Aramco, the world’s largest oil firm with crude reserves of about 265 billion barrels, plans to make major investment in India’s petroleum sector as it considers India the most preferred destination to invest at a time when the global economy is in a crisis.

• During the Prime Minister’s two-day visit. India showcased its initiatives at improving the ease of doing business and efforts to simplify and rationalise existing rules and relax the foreign direct investment norms in key areas, including railways, defence and insurance.
• Saudi Arabia is India’s largest supplier of crude oil.
• The two countries also expressed satisfaction at the growing bilateral trade in the energy sector.
• Modi invited Saudi firms such as Aramco and SABIC to invest in the India’s infrastructure sector.
• India is 79% dependent on imports to meet its oil needs and Saudi Arabia is its largest supplier.
• The two sides also agreed to focus on areas of training and human resources development and cooperation in research and development in the energy sector.

Both leaders also welcomed the signing of the framework agreement between the General Investment Authority in Saudi Arabia and Invest India aimed at facilitating investments by the private sectors in the two countries.