Shams Ahsan Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Saudi Arabia by the end of this year, a section of the Indian media reported on Saturday quoting sources familiar with the development. The prime minister may visit the Kingdom along with two other Gulf countries, Hindustan Times quoted the sources as saying. In an interview with Saudi Gazette earlier this month, Syed Shahnawaz Hussain, who is a national spokesperson of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said that India wants to further enhance its relations with Saudi Arabia. “Stronger ties are for the good of both countries,” he said, adding that a visit to Saudi Arabia was on the prime minister's priority list. “India has the largest population of Muslims in the world after Indonesia, and some 2.8 million Indians are working in the Kingdom. So it is natural to have strong ties with Saudi Arabia,” Shahnawaz told Saudi Gazette. Saudi-Indian ties were upgraded to strategic partnership during the visit of former prime minister Manmohan Singh in 2010, the first by an Indian PM to the Kingdom in 28 years. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, who visited India in 2014 when he was the Crown Prince, met Prime Minister Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane last November. Shahnawaz said King Salman is a good friend of India and has a good understanding of the country. Prime Minister Modi sent a strong delegation led by Vice President Hamid Ansari to the Kingdom to offer condolences on the death of King Abdullah. King Salman made a telephone call to the Indian prime minister when Operation Decisive Storm began against Houthi rebels in Yemen in March. Following the telephone conversation, Saudi warplanes allowed the evacuation of stranded Indian nationals out of Sanaa to Djibouti.
