The article first appeared on DNA on April 22, 2025.
Over the past decade, India and Saudi Arabia have steadily deepened a partnership that now spans trade, energy, defense, and the mobilization of a vast diaspora. This coming week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will touch down in Riyadh once again—his fourth visit to the kingdom—at a moment when Saudi Arabia itself is undergoing one of the most dramatic policy overhauls in its modern history. Driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030, the desert monarchy is racing to wean its economy off oil, pouring capital into infrastructure, tourism, entertainment, sports, healthcare and cutting-edge technologies. Spurred on by falling oil prices and a desire to secure its geopolitical standing beyond the Gulf, Riyadh is aggressively diversifying its revenue streams and beefing up its defense capabilities.
For India, this transformation comes at an opportune moment. As the world’s fifth-largest economy and home to a skilled, young workforce of nearly 1.4 billion people, New Delhi is looking to broaden its energy suppliers even as it invites foreign capital into infrastructure, manufacturing and digital services. The Saudi market—already familiar with Indian traders, entrepreneurs and professionals—offers New Delhi not only a stable destination for investment but also the promise of strategic alignment in a rapidly shifting Middle East. And with nearly 3 million Indians living and working in Saudi Arabia, there is an active, transnational bridge linking the two governments’ ambitions.
Their most concrete expression of this deepening bond came in October 2019, when Prime Minister Modi and King Salman inaugurated the India–Saudi Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) in Riyadh. Designed to meet at ministerial level every two years, the Council brings together ten specialized working groups—covering energy, defense production, counter-terrorism, trade and investment, agriculture, education and culture. At that inaugural gathering, New Delhi and Riyadh inked no fewer than twelve memoranda of understanding, laying the groundwork for cooperation in civil aviation, energy technology transfer, mining, and joint military exercises.
Perhaps the crown jewel of these accords is the planned $50 billion West Coast Refinery and Petrochemical Complex, to be built in Maharashtra by Saudi Aramco in partnership with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and Indian conglomerates. Slated to become one of the world’s largest refining hubs, the project not only guarantees a long-term market for Saudi crude but also promises to turbocharge India’s downstream sector, create tens of thousands of jobs and catalyze ancillary industries across the region. For Riyadh, it cements a foothold in one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer markets; for New Delhi, it locks in supply security and attracts much-needed foreign direct investment.
But beyond balance sheets and boardrooms, there is a subtler dimension at play: the realignment of global power in the wake of rising protectionism. As U.S. policy under President Donald Trump has at times pitted Washington against both Riyadh and New Delhi—whether through trade tariffs or energy pricing disputes—each country has quietly sought to hedge its bets by broadening its network of allies. India’s outreach to Saudi Arabia reflects this dual imperative: to secure the long-term flow of crude and capital, and to project its own influence into the broader Middle East. For the kingdom, partnering with Asia’s rising giant offers a valuable counterweight to American and European dominance in the region.
When Prime Minister Modi arrives in Riyadh, he’ll attend business roundtables, energy forums and cultural events that underscore just how far this relationship has traveled. More than ceremonial photo-ops, these meetings will test the mettle of an alliance forged not only by history—but by a shared determination to navigate an uncertain geopolitical landscape together. In a world where oil prices can swing on a tweet, and trading partners can shift with the next election cycle, India and Saudi Arabia appear determined to write their own playbook—one that knits together economic opportunity, strategic cooperation and the aspirations of millions on both sides.
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