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Saudi, Indian Foreign Ministers Hold Economic Talks, Sign Accord
RIYADH (News Agencies) - Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and his Saudi counterpart, Prince Saud al-Faisal, held talks on boosting economic ties and on the Palestinian uprising against Israel, the official news agency SPA said Saturday.
They also reviewed efforts to boost political ties and signed an accord on "cooperation and coordination" between their ministries, at the meeting late Friday in the Saudi capital, SPA said.
The accord "will permit the two countries to exchange views on regional and international issues of common interest," according to India's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Tamliz Ammed.
"The peace process in the Middle East and the savage killings carried out by Israel against innocent Palestinian civilians" were at the center of the talks between Prince Saud and Singh, SPA reported.
It said the two ministers called for Israel "to respect the bases of the Madrid [peace] conference and the relevant resolutions of the U.N. Security Council founded on the principle of land for peace."
The agency said Singh met later with King Fahd, to whom he handed a message from Indian President K.R. Narayanan.
Singh arrived Friday on the first visit by an Indian foreign minister to the kingdom, which hosts a major Indian community but is a key ally of India's archrival, Pakistan.
He is also expected to sign an agreement with Saudi Arabia on drug trafficking.
The more than one million Indians who work in Saudi Arabia make up the oil-rich Gulf state's largest expatriate population, sending home nearly $4 billion a year in remittances.
India also buys 25% of its oil from Saudi Arabia.
But the kingdom, the keeper of Islam's two holiest shrines, has strong relations with Pakistan, supplying Islamabad with nearly a billion dollars in economic aid over the past few years.
Former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is now living in exile in Saudi Arabia, said in July 1999 that Riyadh played an "important" role in the resolution of India and Pakistan's conflict over Kashmir.
India rejects foreign mediation over the divided Himalayan territory, viewing the issue as an internal matter.
In Islamabad, a senior foreign ministry official viewed Singh's visit with suspicion, saying it was "obviously aimed at forging closer relations between the two countries and weakening Saudi Arabia's support to Pakistan" on Kashmir.
Another issue that could be on the agenda in Riyadh is India's warming relationship with Israel, which has irked Arab countries despite New Delhi's assurances that the two countries would not cooperate on nuclear issues.
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