India's Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar has described his visit to Saudi Arabia as "important, historic and thoroughly enjoyable." An Interview with Aiyer published today by Saudi Gazette said Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi shared those sentiments and described Aiyar's visit as not just the first step, but a strategic step towards a new partnership. He said there could be new projects in the future in refining and marketing of oil and gas, among areas. Asked to comment on the outcome of the visit, Aiyar said: "The most important outcome is our agreement to carry forward the Asian dialogue initiated in Delhi in January. We have come to two basic agreements. First along with the ministerial meeting of the International Energy Forum (IEF) every alternate year, we will organize a meeting of our Asian round table on the sidelines. "The second thing we agreed is that Saudi Arabia and India will cooperate to secure funding and manpower for the IEF Secretariat in Riyadh to undertake four major studies; (a) on Asian petroleum and petro products market, (b) crisscrossing interlocking investments in the hydrocarbon (fossil fuel) sector between Asian producers and consumers, (C) establishing a network of intellectual exchanges to strengthen the knowledge base of Asian institutions involved in R & D in the hydrocarbon sector, (d) a framework of cooperation on environment protection and conservation of energy resources." --MORE 1141 Local Time 0841 GMT
