In this episode of ‘Hum Bhi Bharat’, Arfa Khanum Sherwani discusses Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to India.

New Delhi: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday offered intelligence sharing and other cooperation with India in fighting extremism and terrorism, as New Delhi tackled rising tensions with Pakistan following a suicide bombing last week on Indian paramilitary soldiers in disputed Kashmir.

Soon after the Pulwama attack in Kashmir, Salman signed a $20 billion-worth pact with Pakistan. In this context, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s enthusiastic reception of the crown prince has been criticised by a section of political parties.

Arfa Khanum Sherwani discuss Modi’s balancing act, in conversation with Tamliz Ahmad, Siddharth Varadarajan and Vivek Katju.

source: The Wire

Relationship with India is strategic, historic and critically important to us; Pakistan is also a friendly nation to us, he says.

After visiting Pakistan and India in quick succession, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir, in an interview, called for “de-escalation” of tensions between the two neighbouring countries in the wake of the Pulwama terror attack. Notwithstanding strong words from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on making Pakistan accountable, the Saudi delegation to India, led by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and comprising Mr. Al-Jubeir, has clearly signalled Riyadh aims to maintain the balance in its ties in the region.

I did not say we would de-escalate tensions, but that we hope the situation can be de-escalated and that the two sides can sit at the table and resolve their differences peacefully. We have friendly relations with Pakistan and friendly relations with India, and our relations are historic. We see India as one of our eight strategic partners in implementing our vision 2030.

Over the past two years, bilateral trade between our two countries almost doubled to $28 billion and I think that is just the beginning. The total amount of investments we are looking at in India exceed $100 billion, including $44 billion to build the largest refining complex in the world. We are looking at a number of projects that could have a value of $26 billion in the next few years. We have a public investment fund investing in India, through Softbank we have invested $10 billion and that is just a beginning. We also have a huge Indian investment in Saudi Arabia, 2.7 million Indians live there, and the relationship with India is strategic, historic and critically important to us.

Pakistan is also a friendly country to us, and we believe that stability and prosperity in Pakistan helps the region, so we have great ties with both countries and if our friends want us to play a role [between them] we will consider it.

But we will not insert ourselves in the middle of the conflict between the two countries even though both are friendly to us. HRH [His Royal Highness] made this point to Indian officials and said both countries are important to us and if you want us to do something, we will consider that.

We have communications with India through security channels dealing with counter-terrorism, intelligence and with regards to pursuing and extraditing subjects, which have been very helpful to both our countries in fighting terrorism and extremism. Those conversations are ongoing, but in the security channel, not the diplomatic channel.

The idea was that listings in general should not be politicised… we don’t mean that a known terrorist should not be listed.

Politicising listings means picking up names of people at random and saying, this is a terrorist, designate, designate. Because, so many countries would want other countries to be designated this way. So that was the meaning of politicisation, not the one case you referred to.

I hope not. I think the leadership in both countries are wise. We have a lot of respect for Prime Minister Modi and we have a lot of respect for Prime Minister Imran Khan and that the two leaders would be able to de-escalate and avoid any conflict. We also believe that it is important for the two countries to work closely together to go after the terrorists and those who finance them.

You spoke of investment in oil. India sources about 17% of its oil from Saudi Arabia, but also has a dependence on oil from Iran. In your talks, did you raise your demand for India to lower its oil off-take from Iran, and did you receive any assurances?

There are US sanctions on buying oil from Iran already and those sanctions apply to the whole world with targets which will be reduced after the six-month [waivers] expire.

We have been steady, reliable suppliers of crude oil to India, and we also invest in India. We are building the largest petroleum refinery and complex in the world, with Indian partners, looking at storage facilities, at making India our energy hub for the region, and invest in infrastructure.

It is not just a buyer-seller partnership; it has been elevated to a strategic partnership on energy. That is not something Iran can do. They don’t have the capacity, knowhow or legal structure, and they have been shunned by the whole world.

I think it is natural that purchases of crude oil from Iran [by India] will drop and purchase of Saudi Arabian oil will increase. But I would never presume to tell a sovereign country what it should and shouldn’t do.

India has not, as you said, shunned Iran. In fact it is increasing its investment in Chabahar, even as Saudi Arabia increases investment in Pakistan’s Gwadar port. Do you worry about rival axes being built with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on one side and Iran and India on the other?

No, I don’t. We stand with India and we stand with Pakistan. Our relationship with India goes back thousands of years… we have cultural, geographic trade ties and we have been neighbouring civilizations without any conflict. The relationship goes way before the state of India was established or the state of Saudi Arabia was established.

There has been growing concerns over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and especially over the implication of officials in his brutal murder. How will your government assure the world that journalists are not being targeted in this manner by your government?

Look, as soon as reports came in, His Majesty the King and the Crown Prince ordered an investigation, the public prosecutor determined that there was a killing and once he gathered evidence filed charges against 11 individuals, seeking the death penalty for five of them.

So we have a mistake that was made, we acknowledged it, put those responsible on trial and we will punish them. The Crown Prince has also ordered a review of the institutions from which these individuals came to ensure more checks and balances. This is what governments do.

In the U.S., Oliver North was found to have been involved in the Iran-Contra deal, and he was sentenced. Same with Abu-Ghraib [prison torture case]. We can assure the world that Saudi Arabia doesn’t kill journalists, and this kind of case has not happened before.

You have dissenters and activists like Rauf Badawi in prison, however…

No.. all those cases are of prisoners being tried by the legal system.

source: The Hindu

Saudi Prince showed sensitivity: sources

Saudi crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman showed “considerable sensitivity to India’s terror concerns” during his one-day visit to Delhi, sources said here on Thursday. Among the highlights of the Crown Prince’s visit, they said, was the structure it gave the India-KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) strategic partnership signed in 2010, substantial enhancement of cooperation on maritime security and intelligence sharing, and a commitment to invest in projects of up to $100 billion in India.

The government has come in for sharp criticism from the Opposition for not ensuring stronger language on terrorism in the Crown Prince’s statement on Wednesday, which did not refer to the Pulwama attack on a CRPF convoy of February 14 that left 40 soldiers dead, and made no references to Pakistan and the Jaish-e-Mohammad group that claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the joint statement issued later in the day contained a “strong condemnation” by both Prince Salman and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Both sides called on all states to reject the use of terrorism against other countries; dismantle terrorism infrastructures where they happen to exist and to cut off any kind of support and financing to the terrorists perpetrating terrorism from all territories against other states; and bring perpetrators of acts of terrorism to justice,” the statement added, with a new reference on condemning “state sponsorship of terror.”

According to the new structures agreed upon, three Ministerial groups will now be set up between the two governments and will meet regularly as a part of the new Strategic Partnership Council.

“This was a significant and successful visit,” the sources said. “The enhanced focus on the relationship is due to the personal rapport which [Prince Mohammad Bin Salman] has had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the past few days.”

source: The Hindu

NEW DELHI: 

People involved in terror attacks should not just be blacklisted but tried and punished, and if there is evidence against the Jaish-e Mohammed and its leader Masood Azhar, he must be listed as a global terrorist at the UN, Saudi Arabia said today. In an exclusive interview to NDTV, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Adel Al-Jubeir, said the Saudi-Pakistan joint statement, which referred to “the need for avoiding the politicisation of the UN listing regime” was not a reference to Masood Azhar.

The Pakistan-based terror group has taken responsibility for Thursday’s attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama, in which 40 securitymen died.

“Our policy on listing individuals is very clear, if someone is engaged in terrorism, if someone belongs to a terror organisation that is responsible for murdering people, if somebody fiances terrorism or recruits for terrorism, that person is implicated in terrorism and ought to be punished and if you can’t capture that person, he or she has to be designated so that they cannot roam the world freely and when they are captured, they are brought to justice,” said Adel Aljubeir, who is part of the delegation accompanying Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The prince is in India after a two-day visit to Pakistan, amid an escalation of tension between Delhi and Islamabad following the attack.

Asked if India needs to provide more evidence on the involvement of Jaish and Masood Azhar in terror attacks in the country, the minister said, it is an “ongoing dialogue” both with Saudi Arabia and the other members of the international community.

Ahead of the Saudi visit, there was criticism in India about a joint statement issued during the Crown Prince’s visit to Pakistan. In what was seen as an apparent reference to India’s effort to include list Masood Azhar as a global terrorist under UN rules, the statement read that the Crown Prince and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had “underlined the need for avoiding politicisation of UN listing regime”.

There has also been criticism about the 20 billion dollar investment Saudi Arabia has promised to Pakistan.

Today, while the Crown Prince, in an address to the media, mentioned that terrorism and extremism are a “common concern” and Saudi Arabia will “cooperate with India and neighbouring states”, there was disappointment that Pulwama, Jaish or Pakistan was not named.

“We were one of the first countries to very strongly condemn the terrorist attack,” the Saudi minister said. “We have very good relations with India in terms of counter terrorism, we have good relations with India when it comes to exchanging information against terrorists — including information that led to stopping terrorist attacks,” he added.

With regards to the listing issue, “originally it had to do with the financial issues that involve FATF and then I guess FATF was taken and it was read like this so I don’t believe that it pertains specifically to the issue that you mentioned,” said Adel Aljubeir.

Underscoring the need for reopening of dialogue with Islamabad, the minister said, “Pakistan is an important country to Saudi Arabia and India is important to Saudi Arabia and so it pains us to see conflict between two countries that we believe to be two friendly countries. We believe that instability in this part of the world is danger to rest of the world”.

Asked if Saudi Arabia believes that Pakistan is doing enough to take action against those terror groups that operate from their territory that target India, the minister said, “I haven’t looked into this issue because that’s not what we do in the foreign ministry, we are diplomats… we are not law enforcement or security people, but I would expect that every country in the world should do everything it can to go after the terrorists”.

source: NDTV

The Saudis, Israelis and New Delhi didn’t want the two visits to take place so close to each other, given that the two countries are seen to be sworn diplomatic antagonists.

New Delhi: Saudi Arabia crown prince Mohammed bin Salman will be arriving in India from Malaysia for a fleeting 24-hour visit on 19 February as he looks to not be seen hyphenating Riyadh’s close ties with Pakistan, which he is also visiting on this trip.

However, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was also set to visit India on 11 February, has cancelled his day-long trip, said sources.

The visit of MBS, as the Saudi crown prince is popularly known, is expected to bolster the strongman image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Central Intelligence Agency in US reportedly concluded in November 2018 that it was MBS who had ordered the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey, in October 2018, despite strong denials by the Saudi government.

According to the Washington Post, US officials had expressed confidence in the CIA’s assessment despite the fact that this enormously complicates America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

The reasons for Netanyahu’s cancellation are not clear. In the last two years, Prime Minister Modi and the Israeli PM have already made one trip each to the other’s country. Earlier this month, Israeli national security adviser Meir Bin Shabbat had visited India for talks with his counterpart Ajit Doval.

Sources said the Saudis, the Israelis and New Delhi didn’t want the two visits to take place so close to each other, considering Saudi Arabia and Israel are seen to be sworn diplomatic antagonists.

Diplomatic visits

February will see the last hurrah of diplomatic visits to India before the upcoming election season — Argentinean President Mauricio Macri will visit on 18 February; besides trips by the former Sri Lanka president Chandrika Kumaratunga to New Delhi, her rival and successor Mahinda Rajapaksa to Bengaluru and former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed to New Delhi.

Kumaratunga’s proposed talks with Modi will be interesting, especially since India seems to be humouring Rajapaksa despite his intense machinations in recent months in trying to topple the elected government of Ranil Wickramasinghe.

Rajapaksa is seen to be close to BJP leader Subramanian Swamy, who has seemingly endeared himself to Modi because of his relentless pursuit of the National Herald case against former Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

But it is the visit of MBS which is drawing all the eyeballs these days.

The Saudi crown prince will be in the national capital for a mere 24 hours — in on 19 February evening and out on 20 February evening — but Ministry of External Affairs sources said he is bringing with him anything from 500-800 people in their own private jets.

Whatever the size of the delegation, fact is that Saudi Arabia has emerged as India’s fourth largest trading partner — after the US, China and UAE — primarily because it is also a top supplier of crude oil, along with Iraq and Iran.

Bilateral trade now stands at $27.48 billion, of which India’s imports are $22.06 billion.

There is also talk of the Saudis interested in putting together an Investment Fund for India, on the lines of the UAE.

The Saudi crown prince who is being heavily criticised by Saudi Arabia’s closest allies such as the UK after journalist Khashoggi’s murder — the CIA said that MBS had ordered the killing — is also being wooed by Islamic nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan. He will be visiting the three nations, besides India, on this trip.

Diplomatic sources in New Delhi told ThePrint that Modi had persuaded MBS to come to India after they both met at the November 2018 G20 summit in Argentina.

In Pakistan, MBS is expected to sign pacts worth $14 billion, besides $3 billion in currency support and a loan of another $3 billion in deferred payments for oil imports signed by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan.

source: The Print