Saudi Arabia figures on top of India’s diplomatic and strategic agenda in the Muslim world and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Kingdom on April 2-3 successfully laid a solid foundation to a more pro-active engagement between the two nations.

In bilateral context, this was the third highest-level engagement between the two powers in past one decade since the landmark India visit by King Abdullah in 2006 — a visit, which took place after a long gap of five decades. This was followed by a return visit in 2010 by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

It was Premier Modi’s first visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Earlier, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Prime Minister Modi had met separately on two occasions, on the sidelines of G-20 meetings in 2014 and 2015.

Apart from the myriads of positive symbolisms in political, diplomatic and strategic arenas, Modi’s visit to the Kingdom yielded a rich harvest of concrete deliverables, which has put bilateral ties between New Delhi and Riyadh on an even higher pedestal.

These can be put in three broad categories: (i) The nearly three-million strong Indian diaspora in Saudi Arabia and the connected labor and welfare issues; (ii) the complex issues related to international terrorism and how to deal with this problem in various aspects, including individuals; and (iii) the regional political matrix, particularly in respect of Syria, Yemen and Palestine.

On the first issue, the two sides constituted for the first time a Joint Consular Working Group, a mechanism wherein the Indian Embassy in Riyadh and the Saudi Ministry of Labor will be reviewing petitions, which come to them from Indian workers in Saudi Arabia. This will ensure a better and smoother way of looking after the interests of Indian workers in the Kingdom.

The second one is even more significant in the larger international context. It pertains to terrorism. It talks about the joint or shared perception on terror and how to deal with terrorism in its various aspects, including individuals. Essentially, India and Saudi Arabia have looked at individuals or the men and the material.

Paras 9 to 12 of the India-Saudi Arabia Joint Statement cover every aspect of terrorism — sanctuaries, cross-border operations and how to deal with guys who actually conduct a terrorist activity and disappear. Para 9 sums it up. It says: “Affirming that the menace of extremism and terrorism threatens all nations and societies, the two leaders rejected totally any attempt to link this universal phenomena to any particular race, religion or culture. They called on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries, dismantle terrorism infrastructure where they happen to exist and cut off any kind of support and financing to the terrorists operating and perpetrating terrorism from their territories against other states, and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice.”

The two sides devoted a separate paragraph on money laundering, havala transactions and all illegal transfers of money, which does not end up being used for the purposes it was intended. They also signed an agreement on this between the financial intelligence units of the two sides.

Not only they established a mechanism for regular exchange of information but have also accepted that the two sides further agreed to take action against illegal transfer of money. That was a key concern that the Indians expressed that at times a lot of this money goes for different purposes but end up being used for other purposes.

In this context, it must be pointed out that Saudi Arabia has already demonstrated several times its commitment toward zero tolerance on the terror issue.

On the third issue of Syria, Yemen, Palestine, the two sides agreed that a solution needs to be found within the framework of what the international community has been asking for which has been expressed in several UNSC resolutions, that it should be through dialogue, that it should be sustainable, and where the people who are involved or the citizens should also be fully involved. This is reflected in para 32 of the joint statement.

The importance of Saudi Arabia for India can hardly be over stated. Sample the following facts.

Saudi Arabia is the largest GCC country. It is also providing one fourth of the total Arab countries’ GDP and half of the GDP of GCC countries, huge resources of oil and natural gas. It has massive reserves of foreign exchange running into almost $700 billion.

Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trading partner. Saudi Arabia is also one of the biggest suppliers of energy to India. Almost 20 percent of India’s crude supplies come from Saudi Arabia. Last year, India imported about $21 billion of crude.