India, Saudi Arabia ink several pacts as PM Modi meets top leaders

India and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday inked over a dozen agreements in several key sectors including oil and gas, defence and civil aviation to bolster their ties as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held extensive talks with the Kingdom's top leadership during which a Strategic Partnership Council was established to coordinate on important issues. Modi, who is on a two-day visit to the Gulf Kingdom to attend the Future Investment Initiative here, held talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. After the delegation-level talks, the two sides signed an agreement to establish the India-Saudi Arabia Strategic Partnership Council to coordinate decisions regarding strategically important issues.

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The council will be headed by Prime Minister Modi and Crown Prince Mohammed and meet every two years. The two sides condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and agreed to step up bilateral security cooperation.Saudi Arabia, known to be a key ally of Pakistan, has been siding with India in its campaign to rid the region of terrorism and pledged to extend all cooperation to effectively deal with the challenge.

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"The two sides stressed that the extremism and terrorism threaten all nations and societies. They rejected any attempt to link this universal phenomenon to any particular race, religion or culture," said a joint statement issued at the end of Modi's visit. It said that both sides expressed their rejection of all terrorist acts and stressed the need to prevent access to weapons including missiles and drones to commit terrorist acts against other countries 

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