Saudi Crown Prince to arrive in India today

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud will arrive here today on a three-day visit to India.

He is accompanied by a high-level delegation including cabinet ministers, senior officials and captains of industry.

Al Saud who is also Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister will hold bilateral talks with the Vice President Hamid Ansari.

During his stay, the Crown Prince will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

India and Saudi Arabia share friendly relations based on close people-to-people contacts. In recent years, there has been significant progress in bilateral cooperation in key areas of mutual interest, including energy security, trade and infrastructure development projects.

Saudi Arabia has become our 4th largest partner with bilateral trade in excess of USD 43 billion in 2012-13. Saudi Arabia is also India's largest crude oil supplier accounting for about one-fifth of our total imports in 2012-13.

Indians form the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and their positive contribution in the progress and development of their host country is well recognized. There are over 2.88 million Indian nationals presently working in Saudi Arabia.