India, Saudi Arabia Mull Joint Production In Defence

India and Saudi Arabia are considering possibilities of joint production in defence industry.

As India is readying itself to receive King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud later this year, Secretary (Economic Relations) Amar Sinha, at an event today, said India-Saudi Arabia relations were growing rapidly beyond the field of energy with both countries in talks to explore joint production.

As India and Saudi Arabia depend on imports to cater to is growing defence needs, both countries see a great potential in joint production in the defence industry, Tribune News Service reported today.

Saudi Arabia is India’s fourth largest trade partner and the country imports around 19 per cent of its crude oil requirement from Saudi. During 2015-16, the value of bilateral trade stood at $ 26.71 billion, a 32 per cent fall from $32.97 billion the previous year due to lower prices of petroleum.

Saudi Arabia is the eighth largest market in the world for Indian exports and is destination to more than 2.4 per cent of India’s global exports while Saudi Arabia is the source of 5.34 per cent of India’s global imports.