Saudi Crown Prince flies back to Riyadh ahead of India visit

Agencies

February 19, 2019

New Delhi, Feb 19: India officially announced the programme for the visit of Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, starting today.

"At the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, His Royal Highness Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is paying his first State visit to India on 19 and February 20, 2019. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation, including ministers, senior officials and leading Saudi businessmen," an announcement by the Ministry of External Affairs said.

His visit comes a day after his two-day trip to Islamabad, where he announced a bail-out investment of $20 billion. The Saudi Crown Prince returned to Saudi Arabia on Monday as India reportedly had reservations over his visit to India from Pakistan, according to PTI news.

During the forthcoming visit, the Crown Prince will call on the President and Vice President of India. He will hold bilateral talks with Modi on a wide range of issues of mutual interest. This visit follows a trip by Modi to Saudi Arabia in April 2016, during which the two countries agreed to elevate their strategic partnership.

"India and Saudi Arabia have historically enjoyed close and friendly relations anchored in mutually beneficial partnership and extensive people to people contacts. In recent years, there has been significant progress in bilateral cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including energy security, trade, investment, infrastructure, defence and security," the announcement said.

Saudi-India bilateral trade was $27.48 billion during the year 2017-18, making Saudi Arabia India's fourth largest trading partner. Saudi Arabia contributes about 20 percent of India's crude requirements. Recently, Saudi ARAMCO in partnership with ADNOC entered into a joint venture for $44 billion worth Ratnagiri Refinery and Petro-Chemical project Ltd.

"About 2.7 million strong and vibrant Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in Saudi Arabia. Their positive and highly-appreciated contribution to the development of their host country has been an important anchor of bilateral engagement. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also facilitates Haj pilgrimage to over 175,000 Indians every year," the Ministry added.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Israel orders 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of ground invasion

News Network

May 6,2024

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

Comments