India humiliated again: No mention of Pakistan in joint declaration after MBS-Modi meeting

Indian media begun to cry foul after a joint statement of Saudi Prince's visit to India was issued.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – Indian efforts to use Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman against Pakistan ended in futility on Wednesday.

Indian media begun to cry foul after a joint statement of the Saudi Prince’s visit to India was issued. The crown prince signed joint accords on industry and culture but announced no major deals.

This did not went well with the biased Indian media and their extremist leaders who maintained that Saudi prince announced $20 billion of investment for Pakistan but not a single penny for India.

The media also termed Modi a ‘traitor’ for not mentioning Pakistan -- a key Saudi ally -- as he again blasted the "barbaric attack" in Kashmir last week that left at least 40 paramilitaries dead.

Moreover; no such organization has been mentioned in the India-Saudi Arabia joint declaration through which any sort of accusations can be leveled against Pakistan.

Step up anti-terror ‘pressure’

The Crown Prince and Narendra Modi vowed to increase pressure on countries that fuel terrorism.

The promise came as fallout from a suicide bomb attack --- that India has blamed on Pakistan and the latter has denied --- overshadowed the latest leg of the crown prince’s tour aiming to boost his country’s image.

"To tackle this menace effectively, we agreed that there is a need to increase all possible pressure on countries supporting terrorism in any way," Modi said after talks with the crown prince.

"It is extremely important to eliminate the terror infrastructure and stop support to terrorists and their supporters."

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Prince Mohammed, who arrived in Delhi from Pakistan where he had offered to help the neighbours ease tensions, responded that "terrorism and extremism is a common concern for India and Saudi Arabia".

The prince added: "I want to state that we are ready to cooperate with India in every way, including through intelligence sharing."

He said India and all "neighbouring countries must work together".

Energy and investment

The Saudi delegation had wanted the Delhi leg of the crown prince tour to be devoted to bolstering its oil supplies to India.

Saudi Arabia is one of India’s key crude suppliers, along with Iran and Iraq.

Since taking office in 2014, Modi has also sought to attract Saudi investment in trade, infrastructure and defence. Two-way trade was worth $27.5 billion last year.

Saudi Arabia wants to invest more, officials said.

"Economic power is shifting from West to East and India will be (the) second-largest economy ahead of the United States, which is a big opportunity for us," Amin Nasser, chief executive of Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, told a Delhi investment conference on Wednesday.

Know More: India rejects Pakistan’s offer to investigate Pulwama attack

 

Aramco signed an accord in April last year with Indian investors on a $44-billion petrochemical project in western India. Nasser, a member of the crown prince’s delegation, said his firm was in talks with other Indian firms as well.

Prince Mohammed said Saudi Arabia has invested nearly $44 billion dollars in India since Modi’s visit to his country in 2016.

"We plan to diversify our investments in petrochemicals and other sectors," he said.

Prince Mohammed, who was greeted with a traditional Modi bear hug at the airport late Tuesday, was expected to go on to China later Wednesday.

India’s opposition Congress party meanwhile criticised Modi for welcoming the crown prince "with such abundance - only hours after he promised billions to Pakistan" while Indians were in grief over the Kashmir attack.

"PM Modi has shown the country, the martyrs and every soldier in India what he thinks of their service and sacrifice," the party said on Twitter.