Saudi prince Mohammed bin Salman's charm offensive

The first visit of Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia who is better known as MbS, to India on February 19-20 is significant for several reasons. 

For MbS, this charm offensive is meant to revive his reputation which took a hit after he was linked to the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this visit just before the general elections is expected to send a positive message to an increasingly polarised nation.

MbS’s earlier pledge to ramp up investments in India, including in the $44 billion Ratnagiri refinery and petrochemical project, will be the icing on the cake. Saudi supplies over 20 per cent of India’s crude oil requirement, and the 2.7 million strong Indian community forms the largest expatriate group in the kingdom. As strategic partners, the two nations share intelligence and similar concerns over the regional situation, including the terror emanating from Pakistan.

Also, any major conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran, both of whom share good relations with India, would impact Indians in both nations. The prince arrives from Islamabad, where he pledged investment deals worth a staggering $20 billion, including $8 billion for an oil refinery in Gwadar. 

Pakistan’s total foreign reserve is less than $8 billion, and Riyadh has already provided a $6 billion loan to help Pakistan, which is seeking its thirteenth financial bailout since the late 1980s. This time, however, the IMF, reportedly under US prodding, has set severe conditions on any aid, including access to details of the complex and opaque funding for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which neither Beijing nor Islamabad seems inclined to share. Incidentally, the third nation on the prince’s itinerary is Beijing.

New Delhi, on the other hand, is keen to invest in MbS’s flagship project, Vision 2030 - aimed at easing his country’s dependence on oil by turning it into a financial and tourism hub - nd thus take the relationship to another level altogether.