Saudi foreign minister calls on Modi

 

Riyadh, April 3 Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Sunday, the second and last day of his bilateral visit to Saudi Arabia.

“Last month in Delhi, now in Riyadh. Saudi FM @AdelAlJubeir calls on PM @narendramodi before the ceremonial welcome,” external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted along with pictures of the two leaders.

Jubeir had come to New Delhi early last month as part of the preparations for the prime ministerial visit and held meetings with Modi as well as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Modi will be accorded a ceremonial welcome on Sunday afternoon at the Royal Court here by King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who will also host a lunch in honour of the visiting prime minister.

There will be a restricted meeting between Modi and King Salman followed by delegation-level talks and the signing of agreements.

The Saudi crown prince and deputy crown prince are also scheduled to call on the prime minister.

During the course of Modi's visit, ties between India and Saudi Arabia are expected to be elevated from the current strategic partnership to a more broad-based one. 

Earlier on Sunday, Modi visited the Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) all-women IT centre here and then addressed the Saudi Chambers of Commerce.

Saudi Arabia is the third and last leg of Modi's five-day, three-nation foreign tour which also took him to Brussels and Washington, D.C. 

In Brussels, he attended the 13th India-European Union (EU) Summit and held a bilateral meeting with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, and then in Washington he participated in the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by US President Barack Obama. 

This is the first prime ministerial visit from India to the oil-rich Gulf kingdom since the visit of Manmohan Singh in 2010.

Modi leave will leave for New Delhi on Sunday evening.